
H 
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A. e» V»A 



"Insurance is the Sun of Life, 

That spreads a rainbow in its evening sky.'* 



The Art of Canvassing. 



How to Sell Insurance, 



WILLIAM MILLER. 



"Life Insurance, sweetening every night the sleep of millions 
of people with tired brains and troubled hearts, and saving 
from utter desolation and want thousands of bereaved families 
every year, is a fact which could not have existed but for the 
Life Insurance Agents.' 1 ' 1 

-Elizur Wright. 



Ijfll-'zJ 



NEW YORK : 

The Chronicle Co., Limited. 

1894. 



A. 






Copyrighted, 1894, 

By William Miller. 

New York. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

Life Insurance Canvassing a Profession 1, 2, 3 

Definition of an Agent's Duties 3, 4 

Preparation for those Duties 4, 5 

Technical Explanations 6 

Mortality Rates and Tables 7-10 

Commutation Columns 11-14 

Formulas 15-18 

Loading, Dividends and Reserves 19-21 

Non-Forfeiture 21, 22 

Choosing a Company 22, 23 

Tact 27 

Essentials of Success 28, 29 

Things to be Avoided ; 30-45 

What to do, and how to do it 45-56 

Industry 56-59 

Integrity 59-64 

Diligence 64-68 

Perseverance 68-72 

Enterprise 73-76 

System, Necessity of Method and Order. 77-81 



IV TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

Enlarging the business ; Ways of Doing It. . . . 82-90 

Compensation 90-92 

Good Will of the Principal Man of a Concern 
Should be Secured; also the Influence of 

Your Candidate's Friends 90, 91 

Employment of Sub- Agents 93, 94 

Methods of Success in Canvassing 95-99 

General Considerations, Objections Answered 

and Reasons for Insuring 99-138 

Summary and Conclusion 137-146 

(See index at the end of the book). 



The Art of Canvassing, 



HOW TO SELL INSURANCE. 



INTRODUCTORY. 

THESE suggestions are intended for and ad- 
dressed to beginners. Experts may rind 
many of them elementary and uninteresting. 
Some are original, some collated, and all are sub- 
mitted without comment, excuse or apology. 

A PROFESSION. 

Life Insurance Canvassing — at one time re- 
garded as a casual employment requiring no 
special education, training or aptitude — has be- 
come in public estimation a recognized and 
reputable profession, engaging a high order of 



2 THE AKT OF CAKVASSIKG. 

capabilities and offering as substantial pecuniary- 
rewards as the more exclusive though scarcely 
more exacting professions, to all of which it is 
superior in this important and interesting par- 
ticular that, though open to all without diploma, 
license or other discrimination, it is never over- 
crowded. 

Efficient agents are not abundant. Of the 
thousands of eager aspirants attracted every 
year by what seems to the uninitiated an easy 
road to fame and fortune, very few achieve suc- 
cess. These few do not wait for patronage — 
they are in demand everywhere. 

An Agent's natural fitness for this profession 
depends chiefly upon his business qualifications, 
industry, persistence, alertness and a certain 
tact and persuasiveness which are acquired by 
practice, rather than by observation or in- 
struction. It is the art of doing and saying the 
right thing at the right time, in the right way, 
and of discreet suppression when silence is 
golden. 



HOW TO SELL INSURANCE.' 3 

An Agent should be thoroughly familiar with 
everything that concerns his own company, to 
enable him to present its claims attractively, to 
describe its plans readily, tersely and clearly, and 
to answer all questions relating to them without 
even temporary hesitation ; and an acquaintance 
with the plans, rates and history of competing 
companies will facilitate comparison of ad- 
vantages, and may in an emergency become a 
convenient weapon for defense. 

THE DUTIES. 

An Agent's duties are usually well defined and 
necessarily intermediary. The principal parties 
in life insurance, the insurer and the insured, 
cannot conveniently transact their business in 
person, and the agent as the representative of 
the insurer, or company, is employed to bring 
these parties into correspondence and to negotiate 
business relations between them. To do this 
effectively requires an intimate acquaintance 



4 THE ART OF CAKVASSING. 

with the parties and especially with the matter 
to be negotiated. Acquaintance with the com- 
pany means such familiarity with its financial 
history, condition and prospects as will enable 
the agent to vindicate its ability to fulfill all its 
obligations as they mature. The amount of 
assets, liabilities, surplus, income, expenditure, 
losses, dividends, insurance in force, insurance 
written and all that concerns or determines the 
financial condition and standing of every com- 
pany is learned by consulting the Official Ee- 
ports issued every year by the Insurance De- 
partments, but a thorough and intimate acquaint- 
ance with the matter to be negotiated is not 
easily acquired. 

PREPARATION. 

The various plans of insurance which are 
really neither numerous nor very diverse; the 
different arrangements for the payment of pre- 
miums, the application of dividends, the accu- 



HOW TO SELL INSUKANCE. 5 

mulation of surplus for tontine distribution, as 
well as the proper manner of making application 
for insurance, are usually fully described in the 
Company's printed instructions, but the Com- 
pany cannot and does not undertake to impart 
technical instruction to its representatives, and 
its omission to do so has led many to undervalue 
its importance, except to satisfy a laudable 
curiosity. An Agent may never be called on 
to compute premiums, surrender values or 
annuities, but the consciousness of competence 
in each and every department of his profession 
equips him for every emergency, inspires him 
with contagious confidence and spares him the 
humility of detection when extemporizing 
illogical explanations. 



TECHNICAL. 

The fundamental principles of life insurance 
and the mathematical processes employed in 
applying them to practical uses may be learned 



6 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

from several excellent and inexpensive publica- 
tions which would be much more satisfactory 
and readable if the information they contain 
were expressed in plain arithmetic and the 
common vernacular instead of unexplained 
algebraic formulae and symbols. 

A Life Insurance Policy is a contract to pay 
a sum of money in a certain contingency, 
usually the termination of the insured life, but 
sometimes, as in endowments, of its survival 
during a given period. 

If the contingency insured against were sure 
to happen at or within a given time, the only 
sufficient consideration for the risk would be the 
present worth of the sum agreed to be paid; 
that is, a premium large enough to accumulate 
at compound interest the sum insured by the 
time it becomes payable; ordinarily it is not 
certain to happen, and a premium that repre- 
sents the probability of its happening is deemed 
an adequate consideration. 



HOW TO SELL INSURANCE. 7 

MORTALITY. 

In all life insurance calculations the prob- 
ability of dying is measured by the predictions 
of the Tables of Mortality, a condensed form of 
statistics, or rather a necrological record of a 
large number of persons (usually a hundred 
thousand or more), showing the number living 
and the number dying at each age until the 
longest survivor is one hundred years old, the 
assumed limit of longevity. 

According to the Combined Experience or 
Actuaries' Table of Mortality (the official stand- 
ard of valuation in New York, Massachusetts 
and many other States) 88,434 out of the original 
hundred thousand survive to the age of twenty- 
seven and seven hundred and eight die between 
the ages of twenty-seven and twenty-eight ; or 
as it is usually expressed, there are 88,434 
living and seven hundred and eight dying at 
age twenty-seven. The probability of dying 
within a year at the age of twenty-seven is 



8 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

seven hundred and eight in 88,434, that is, 
about eight in a thousand. 

If 88,434 persons of that age should mutually 
insure each other's lives in the sum of one 
thousand dollars for one year, they would need 
for the payment of losses at the end of the year, 
$708,000, or if the premiums were prepaid, 
$680,769 at the beginning of the year. The 
premium is determined by discounting the sums 
insured on the number of those dying within 
the year, and dividing the discounted total by 
the number of persons living at the beginning 
of the year. 

This is a simple calculation but it would be- 
come very complex and laborious if the insurance 
were designed to continue for a long period, or 
for the whole after life of the longest survivor; 
in which case the losses of every future year 
would require to be discounted to their present 
value in order to obtain the premium for a 
single age, and a separate and different calcula- 
tion would be necessary to find even the single 



HOW TO SELL INSURANCE. 



9 



premium at each age — indeed nearly all the neces- 
sary calculations would be well nigh impossible 
without the use of the commutation column. 



TABLES OF MORTALITY. 



Actuaries 1 Table. 


American 
Table. 


30 Companies 
Table. 


Age. 


Living. 


Dying. 


Living. 


Dying. 


Living. 


Dying. 


20 

21 

22 

23 

24 

25 

26 

27 

28 

29 

30 

31 

32 

33 

34 

35 

36 

37 

38 

39 

40 

41 

42 

43 

44 

45 


93,268 
92,588 
91,905 
91,219 
90,529 
89,835 

89,137 

88,434 
87,726 
87,012 
86,292 
85,565 

84.831 
84,089 
83,339 
82,581 
81,814 
81,038 

80,253 
79,458 
78,653 
77,838 
77,012 
76,173 

75,316 
74,435 


680 
683 
686 
690 
694 
698 

703 
708 
714 
720 
727 
734 

742 
750 
758 
767 
776 
785 

795 

805 
815 
826 
839 
857 

881 
900 


92,637 
91,914 
91,192 
90,471 

89,751 
89,032 

88,314 
87,596 
86,878 
86,160 
85,441 
84,721 

84,000 
83,277 
82,551 
81,822 
81,090 
80,353 

79,611 

78,862 
78,106 
77,341 
76,567 

75,782 

74,985 
74,173 


723 

722 
721 
720 
719 

718 

718 
718 
718 
719 
720 
721 

723 

726 
729 
732 
737 

742 

749 
756 
765 

774 
785 
797 

812 
828 


93,606 
92,973 
92,340 
91,707 
91,073 
90,438 

89,802 
89,163 
88,522 
87,878 
87,229 
86,576 

85,918 
85,254 
84,583 
83,904 
83,215 
82,517 

81,808 
81,086 
80,350 
79,598 

78,aso 

78,042 

77,234 
76,403 


633 

633 
633 
634 
635 
636 

639 
641 
644 
649 
653 
658 

664 
671 
679 
689 
698 
709 

722 
736 

752 
768 
788 
808 

831 

856 



10 



THE ART OF CANVASSING. 



Actu Aries' Table. 



Age. 



Living. 



Dying. 



American 
Table. 



Living. 



Dying. 



30 Companies 
Table. 



Living. 



73,526 

72,582 
71,601 
70,580 
69,517 
68,409 

67,253 
66,046 
64,785 
63,469 
62.094 
60,658 

59,161 
57,600 
55,973 
54.275 
52,505 
50,661 

48,744 
46,754 
44,693 
42,565 
40,374 
38,128 

35,837 
33,510 
31,159 
28,797 
26.439 
24,100 

21,787 
19,548 
17,369 
15,277 
13,290 



944 
981 
1,021 
1,063 
1,108 
1,156 

1,207 
1,261 
1,316 
1,375 
1,436 
1,497 

1,561 
1,627 
1,698 
1,770 
1,844 
1,917 

1,990 
2,061 
2,128 
2,191 
2,246 
2,291 

2.327 
2,351 

2,362 
2,358 
2,339 
2,303 

2,249 
2,179 
2,092 
1,987 
1,866 



73,345 

72,497 
71,627 
70,731 
69,804 
68,842 

67,841 
66,797 
65,706 
64,563 
63,364 
62,104 

60.779 
59,385 
57,917 
56,371 
54,743 
53,030 

51,230 
49,341 
47,361 
45,291 
43,133 
40,890 

38,569 
36.178 
33,730 
31,243 
28,738 
26,237 

23,761 
21,330 
18,961 
16,670 
14,474 



848 
870 
896 
927 
962 
1,001 

1,044 
1,091 
1,143 
1,199 
1,260 
1,325 

1,394 
1,468 
1,546 
1,628 
1,713 
1,800 

1,889 
1,980 
2,070 
2,158 
2,243 
2,321 

2.391 
2.448 
2,487 
2.505 
2,501 
2,476 

2,431 
2.369 
2.291 
2,196 
2,091 



75,547 
74,664 
73,751 
72,806 

71,826 
70,808 

69,749 
68,646 
67.496 
66.296 
65,041 
63,729 

62,355 
60,917 
59,412 
57,836 
56,186 
54,461 

52,658 
50,776 
48,814 
46,774 
44,656 
42,466 

40,205 
37.882 
35,504 
33,082 
30.629 
28,157 

25,635 
23,232 

20.816 
18,460 
16,186 



HOW TO SELL INSURAKCE. 11 

COMMUTATION COLUMNS. 

These long and laborious processes of dis- 
counting and addition are avoided and all the 
calculations incident to life insurance greatly 
facilitated by the simple process of making all 
the discounts and additions in advance. The 
four principal columns are denoted by the 
capital letters D, N, C, M. The numbers 
found in the D column of the Commutation 
Columns are obtained by discounting the num- 
ber living at each age of the Mortality Table as 
many years as the age denotes. For example : 
88,434, the number living at the age of twenty- 
seven, is multiplied by the present value of one 
dollar, discounted twenty-seven years at four per 
cent, and the amount 30,670.38 is set opposite 
that age in the D column and called D 27 and 
the D of every age is obtained by the same 
process. 

The numbers found in the N" column are 
obtained by the addition of the D's of each age 
from the oldest to the youngest. For example : 



12 THE ART OF CANVASSIHG. 

N" 27 is formed by the addition of D 99, D 98 
and so back to D 27 and the Ws of each age in 
the same way. 

The C column is formed by multiplying the 
number dying within one year after each age by 
the yalue of one dollar discounted for a number 
equal to that age plus one; because premiums 
are theoretically paid at the beginning of the 
year and losses at the end of it. Thus the 
number (236.102) found in the C column- 
opposite age twenty-seven is the number (seven 
hundred and eight) multiplied by the present 
value of one dollar discounted twenty-eight years. 

The M column is formed by the addition of 
the C's, as the X column by the addition of the 
D's. Two other columns used in computing 
increasing, decreasing and return premiums are 
rarely used and not here explained. 

The Commutation Columns following are 
those of the Actuaries' or Combined Experience 
Table of Mortality, with 4 per cent, interest, 
being the standard for valuations by the Insur- 



HOW TO SELL INSURANCE. 



13 



ance Departments of Massachusetts, New York 
and other States : 



D Col. 


N Col. 


CCol. 


MCol. 


42,566.30 


827,930.7 


298.407 


10,722.810 


40,630.73 


785,364.4 


288.195 


10,424.403 


38,779.80 


744,733.7 


278.328 


10,136.208 


37,009.95 


705,953.9 


269.184 


9,857.880 


35,317.31 


668,943.9 


260.331 


9.588.696 


33,698.62 


633,626.6 


251.761 


9,328.365 


32,150.76 


599,928.0 


243.812 


9,076.604 


30,670.38 


567,777.2 


236.102 


8,832.792 


29,254.64 


537,106.3 


228.945 


8,596.690 


27,900.53 


507,852.2 


221.989 


8,367.745 


26,605.43 


479,951.7 


215.527 


8,145.756 


25,366.63 


453,346.3 


209.233 


7,930.229 


24,181.75 


427,979.7 


203.378 


7,720.996 


23,048.31 


403,797.9 


197.664 


7,517.618 


21,964.17 


380,749.6 


192.089 


7,319.954 


20,927.30 


358,785.4 


186.894 


7,127.865 


19,935.51 


337,858.1 


181.814 


6,940.971 


18,986.94 


317,922.6 


176.849 


6,759.157 


18,079.83 


298,935.7 


172.213 


6,582.308 


17,212,24 


280,855.9 


167.673 


6.410.095 


16,382.56 


263,443.6 


163.227 


6,242.422 


15,589.23 


247,241.0 


159.067 


6,079.195 


14,830.58 


231,671.8 


155.356 


5,920.128 


14,104.82 


216,841.2 


152.586 


5,764.772 


13,409.74 


202,736.4 


150.826 


5,612.186 


12,743.15 


189,326.7 


149.634 


5,461.360 


12,103.15 


176,584.6 


149.419 


5,311.726 


11,488.46 


164.480.2 


149.303 


5,162.307 


10,897.30 


152,991.7 


149.414 


5,013.004 


10,528.76 


149.094.4 


149.578 


4,863.590 


9,781.92 


131,765.6 


149.913 


4,714.012 


9,255.78 


121,983.7 


150.392 


4,564.099 


8,749.40 


112,727.9 


150.987 


4.413.707 


8,261.89 


103,978.5 


151.675 


4.262.720 


7,792.45 


95,716.64 


152.205 


4,111.045 


7.340.54 


87,924.19 


152.910 


3,958.840 


6,905.30 


80.583.65 


153.552 


3,805.930 


6,486.16 


73,678.35 


153.918 


3,652.378 


6,082.?8 


67,192.19 


154.325 


3,498.460 



14 



THE ART OP CANVASSING. 



D Col. 


N Col. 


CCol. 


5,694.50 


61,109.41 


154.663 


5,320.82 


55,414.91 


155.204 


4,960.96 


50,094.09 


155.563 


4.614.60 


45,133.13 


155.833 


4,281.28 


40,518.53 


155.772 


3,960.84 


36,237.25 


155.484 


3,653.02 


32,276.41 


154.838 


3,357.68 


28,623.39 


153.723 


3,074.81 


25,265.71 


152.186 


2,804.37 


22,190.90 


150.006 


2,546.50 


19,386.53 


147.127 


2.301.43 


16,840.03 


143.691 


2,069.22 


14,538.60 


139.589 


1,850.05 


12,469.38 


134.848 


1,644.04 


10,619.33 


129.442 


1.451.37 


8,975.29 


123.461 


1,272.09 


7,523.92 


116.885 


1,106.27 


6,251.83 


109,755 


953.971 


5,145.56 


102.248 


815.031 


4,191.589 


94.3904 


689.294 


3,376.558 


86.2047 


576.578 


2.687.264 


77.8415 


476.560 


2,110.686 


69.3925 


388.858 


1,634.126 


61.0124 


312.868 


1,245.288 


52.9205 


247.914 


932.4199 


45.2153 


193.163 


684.5059 


38.0931 


147.641 


491.3429 


31.5838 


110.379 


343.7019 


25.7091 


80.4242 


233.3229 


20.5139 


56.8171 


152.8987 


15.9733 


38.6584 


96.08156 


12.0336 


25.1380 


57.42316 


8.72547 


15.4457 


32.28516 


6.01882 


8.83281 


16.83946 


3.88327 


4.60982 


8.00645 


2.28853 


2.14399 


3.39683 


1.20449 


.85704 


1.25284 


.53454 


.289541 


.39579 


.19274 


.085663 


.10626 


.06178 


.020592 


.02059 


.01980 



HOW TO SELL IKSUKAKCE. 15 

FORMULAE. 

In all the books treating of this subject the 
rules for computing premiums are usually ex- 
pressed by formulae, in which the number or 
numbers to be divided are placed above and the 
divisor below a horizontal line ; if a number is to 
be subtracted from another it is placed to the 
right with the minus sign — between, and if two 
numbers are to be added the sign -f is placed be- 
tween them. The sign X or a dot indicates 
multiplication, and the sign -=- division. 

There are but four ways of insuring in regular 
companies, whole-life insurance, term insurance, 
pure endowment and endowment combined 
with term insurance. The seeming diversity of 
plans is due to combinations and to different 
ways of paying premiums and of applying sur- 
plus. 

Whole life insurance may be purchased by a 
single payment, by a limited number, as five, 
ten, fifteen or more payments; or by continued 



16 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

payments, commonly called straight life insur- 
ance. 

To find the single premium for whole life in- 
surance, divide the M of the age for which the 
premium is desired by the D of that age. For 
example: M 27 (8,832.792) divided by D 27 
(30,670.38) gives $287.99. The formula is 

Mx MJ7 

D x U D 2? ' 

The continued annual payment for whole life 
insurance is found by dividing the M of any 
age by the N of that age. Example : M 27 
(8,832.792) divided by N 27 (567,777.2) is 
$15.56. The formula is |» or generally ~. 

To find the limited premium for whole life 
insurance at any age, divide the M of that age 
by the difference between the N" of that age and 
the N of the age when payments are to cease. 
Example : M 27 (8,832.792) divided by 249, 856. 6, 
the difference between N 27 (567,777.2) and 
and N 37 (317,922.6), gives the net premium of • 
a ten payment whole life insurance at age 27, 



HOW TO SELL rSTSUKANCE. 17 

$35.35. The formula is N 27 M _ 2 ^ 37 and generally 



Nx— Nx+ n ' 

Term insurances are usually paid for by pre- 
miums throughout the term. These are found 
by subtracting the M of the age at which the 
insurances cease from the M of the age at which 
they begin and by dividing the remainder by the 
difference of the N's of the ages at which pay- 
ments begin and cease. 

Example: Divide 2,073.635 —the difference 
between M 27 (8,832.792) and M 37 (6,759.157) 
by 249,854.6 — the difference between N 27 
(567,777.2) and N" 37 (317 7 922.6) to find the 
annual premium $8.26. 

The formula is *%Z** and generally 
Mx-Mx+n th in tM and th formula, 

N x — N x + n ? ' ' 

standing for the term of years. 

A pure endowment is payable only in case of 
survival to the end of a designated term of 
years and not in case of previous death, or with 
return of all premiums paid, without interest, 



18 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

in case of prior death. Endowment insurance, 
commonly called endowment, is a combination 
of term insurance with pure endowment and the 
formula for computing the premiums are those 
for term insurance with the D of the age at 
which the endowment matures added to the 
numerator. 

The rule is, add the D of the age at which 
the endowment is payable to the difference be- 
tween the M of the age when the insurance be- 
gins and the M of the age when it ceases, and 
divide by the difference of the N of the ages 
at which the payments begin and cease. Ex- 
ample: add D 47 (11,488.46) to the difference 
(3,670.485) between M 27 (8,832,792) and M 
47 (5,162.307) and divide by 403,297.0 (the 
difference of N" 27 and KT 47) to find the annual 
premium $37.59. The formula is M "- n^ '' 
and generally Mx ~//_ + N n x + + D n x + n . 

These ages are used for illustration only, and 
the computation of premiums at other ages and 



HOW TO SELL IKSUKANCE. 19 

for other terms simply requires the substitution 
of such ages and terms. These formulae are for 
the computation of net premiums, that is, the 
premiums sufficient to provide for losses and 
reserves, but not for contingencies and ex- 
penses. 

THE LOADING. 

To provide for the expense of management an 
addition is made to the net premium, which is 
called the margin or loading. 

The net premiums of whole life insurances, 
whether purchased by continued or limited pay- 
ments, are commonly "loaded" thirty or forty 
per cent. , and endowment insurances twenty or 
thirty per cent. 

THE DIVIDENDS. 

In regular companies security and certainty 
are regarded as more important than initial 
cheapness, and the premiums, being designedly 



20 THE AET OF CANVASSING. 

calculated to provide for any emergency, are 
larger than will be ordinarily required. The ex- 
cess, called surplus, is returned to the premium 
payer in any one of several ways; in reduction 
of current premiums; or in present cash pay- 
ments; or in the purchase of additional insur- 
ance; or, as in tontines, after years of accumu- 
lation, from compound interest and the gains 
accruing from lapses and forfeitures. 

THE RESERt/E. 

The net premium of an endowment or of a 
whole life policy is usually much larger than the 
normal cost of insurance, or sums necessary to 
provide for the death losses predicted by the 
Mortality Tables. The annual excess of net 
premiums over the current cost of the insurance 
with its interest is credited to the policy as 
a fund technically called a reserve, which in- 
creases every year in amount, if the policy con- 
tinues in force, until it equals the amount in 



HOW TO SELL LtfSTJRAtfCE. 21 

sured. The annual contribution to the reserve 
is never any given percentage of the net pre- 
mium nor of the cost of insurance of the first 
or any other year; the amount of the reserve 
differs for different kind of policies, for the 
same kind of policies issued at different ages, and 
for the same policies in each year and month. 
The reserve is defined to be the difference be- 
tween the net single premium at the age of 
valuation and the present value at that age of 
the future net premiums stipulated to be paid — 
a definition nearly incomprehensible to all ex- 
cept actuaries, to whom the agent is advised to 
commit the matter, without reservation. 



NONFORFEITURE. 

Formerly the Companies returned no part of 
the reserve of policies lapsed for non-payment 
of premiums. But the laws of many of the 
states now protect the policyholder from such 
loss, and companies generally give the lapsing 



22 THE ART OF CAKVASSIKG. 

policyholder some liberal consideration for his 
unearned premium, retaining a portion as a 
surrender charge to compensate for adverse 
selection on the hypothesis that the better class 
of the insured are most inclined to discontinue. 
Some companies deduct a surrender charge from 
the reserve and pay the remainder in money as 
a "cash surrender value" 



THE COMPANY. 

Having derived from these suggestions or 
from ampler sources of information fairly satis- 
factory and communicable ideas of the fund a-, 
mental principles of life insurance, and approved 
methods of adapting them to useful purposes, 
the beginner is naturally impatient to select a 
company and put his newly acquired knowledge 
to practical uses. His first choice is likely to 
be determined by the amount of the commis- 
sions offered him, for a large percentage of a 
heavy premium is attractive in prospect. Later 



HOW TO SELL WSURAKCE. 23 

on, and after some disheartening experiences, 
it occurs to him that men do not pay large 
prices for things easily obtained and that the 
size of the commission is often a very fair 
measure of the difficulty of earning it. The 
percentage of commissions is a matter of second- 
ary importance and the best company for an 
unskilled agent's purposes is one that does not 
require defense and that ofiEers attractive and 
easily explained plans. 

INTERVIEWING. 

However well equipped he may be, an agent's 
first essays are rarely successful. The people 
whom he endeavors to interest do not share his 
enthusiasm; they even decline, more or less 
courteously, to consider the matter. Strangers 
and mere acquaintances plead preoccupation, 
previous engagements or abundant existing in- 
surance, while personal friends, after a few 
derisive jests, prove inaccessible ever after. 



24 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

All this is very discouraging until the animus 
is better understood. This snubbing is vicarious 
as to the agent. It is their defensive weapon. 
They have been interviewed by many agents, 
have listened to explanations that did not ex- 
plain, to answers that did not satisfy, and to 
importunities that could not be repelled without 
rudeness and they desire to escape such inflic- 
tions in future. Many of them are quite as 
eager to receive as the agent is to impart such 
information as will enable them to act as intelli- 
gently in this as in any other equally important 
business matters. Knowledge is power and the 
agent whose manner suggests his ability to im- 
part it secures attention and respect. He should 
introduce his business in an open, direct and 
business-like way with all the vigor and clear- 
ness he can employ, and not waste the precious 
opportunity in digressions, but confine himself 
to a plain statement of facts in logical sequence, 
carefully avoiding any overt endeavor to force 
conclusions, for, if the facts are properly ar- 



HOW TO SELL IHSURAHCE. 25 

ranged, the inferences are inevitable, Whether 
it is wiser to " strike while the iron is hot" or 
"wait for the seed to grow" is a matter for 
nice discrimination, with the odds in favor of 
the latter alternative. 

More risks are lost by indiscreet precipitancy 
than by judicious waiting. Very few men can 
be insured at the first interview, but must be 
seen many time} before their application can 
be secured. An agent finds it necessary to 
drop in on such men often, and talk them up. 
Unfortunately, there is such a thing as a per- 
sistence which makes itself offensive, but it 
should not be of that nature. A man may be 
canvassed frequently, and yet in such a way 
that he finally yields and gives you his applica- 
tion. A knowledge of human nature and ex- 
perience will give the agent an intuitive per- 
ception of the workings of his customer's mind 
and enable him at the right moment to deal with 
him in the right way to secure his application. 
Hasten slowly — a good impression will keep. 



26 THE ART OF CANVASSIXG. 

But this rule is not of universal application. 
The best present and prospective patrons of 
life insurance are professional and business men 
accustomed to rapid and accurate analysis of 
strictly business propositions, but without time 
or taste for theories and abstractions. They 
carry large policies and are usually well versed 
in the external polity of life insurance. The 
best and ordinarily the only effective way to 
secure their attention is to make a proposal in 
writing, brief, terse and to the point — such a 
proposal as they entertain for the purchase or 
sale of the wares they deal in ; such a proposal 
will be better received if the agent's manner 
shows that it is not to be supplemented by argu- 
ment, an indifferent "take it or leave it" 
manner, is most effective. In case the proposal 
elicits no comment he should not prolong the 
interview, but if it excites any show of interest 
he must begin his fine work without delay. 



HOW TO SELL IHSURANCE. 27 

TAGT. 

The one indispensable factor of success in life 
insurance canvassing is the art, or knack, of 
doing and saying the right thing or nothing, at 
the right time. This, no treatise, however 
elaborate and comprehensive, can impart. It 
is an inborn faculty but like other natural gifts 
is susceptible of cultivation. An agent can be 
taught how to present and explain plans of in- 
suring and everything else that pertains to his 
profession, but the nice touch that moves men 
to do his bidding is incommunicable. The 
agent who possesses it in a moderate degree can, 
by study and practice, educate a natural apti- 
tude for adaptation to the man, the occasion 
and environment, but nothing supplies the lack 
of its magic influence to convert indecision into 
compliance. 



28 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

ESSENTIALS OF SUCCESS. 

The qualities essential to assured and perma- 
nent success are politeness, honesty and indus- 
try. The canvasser who makes and retains 
friends by geniality and kindness, who wins 
confidence by earnestness and directness, and 
multiplies his opportunities by methodical in- 
dustry builds upon a very solid foundation. 

A good insurance solicitor must be a good all- 
around man. He must firmly believe what he 
talks and he should only talk what he firmly 
believes. To carry conviction to the mind of a 
listener the speaker must be earnest and honest. 
Life insurance has been so often discussed that 
glittering generalities cease to attract and solid 
facts are the only forcible arguments. The 
subject has its sentimental as well as its business 
features and it is useless to ignore either. So 
long as men insure their lives for the future 
protection of wives and children the sentimental 
has force and cannot be ignored. In talking 



HOW TO SELL INSURANCE. 29 

life insurance much depends on the character 
and surroundings of the man to whom the sub- 
ject is submitted and the matter and manner 
should be adjusted accordingly. There is so 
much to be said in favor of both features that the 
good solicitor need never be at a loss for an 
argument or a home-reaching truth. 

There is never any necessity for stating im- 
probable results. The records of all the com- 
panies are full of wonderful figures in regard to 
this great business and there is no occasion for 
deviating from the solid facts so furnished. So 
wonderful are the results that good insurance 
needs no stronger argument than a faithful and 
veracious statement of what has been done by 
well managed companies. 

There are a great many " dont's" in the busi- 
ness of life insurance which the agent who has 
just entered it will do well to ponder. He 
probably will be a good while in getting at some 
of them, unless they are pointed out to him at 
the start, for they lie all along the road of ex- 



30 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

perience, and men usually fail to see their full 
force until they have run up against them. 

THE THINGS TO BE AVOIDED. 

Never forget that the things to be avoided are 
second only in importance to the things 
to be done. 

Never strike the company for more pay. You 
are certain to get all you earn, perhaps 
more, and you cannot find another busi- 
ness in which energy, industry and tact, 
without capital, can be so profitably in- 
vested. 

Never assail other companies except in defense 
of your own company. Their compliance 
with the law warrants all of them solvent 
and trustworthy. When occasion arises 
to discuss their plans and advantages, the 
agent should treat them fairly while en- 
deavoring to demonstrate the superiority 
of his own company. 



HOW TO SELL INSURANCE. 31 

Never try to do business for two companies. A 
divided allegiance is certain to be em- 
barrassing and confusing. Fidelity is an 
exemplary virtue. Stick to the company 
of your choice, and when promotion 
comes it will find you in line. 

Never hesitate to solicit insurance because its 
acceptance seems improbable. To attack 
the improbable may produce the unex- 
pected, which always happens. 

Never hesitate to interview the wealthy, pros- 
perous and intelligent ; they are among 
the best patrons of life insurance and 
the most desirable, for they can best un- 
derstand and appreciate and pay for it. 
Nor are they inaccessible, if what is of- 
fered interests them. 

Never introduce yourself or your business 
depreciatingly or apologetically, as if 
you were ashamed of it or afraid of 
meeting rebuff. Remember always that 
next to direct religious effort, your 



32 THE ART OF CAXVASSIXG. 

mission promises the highest benefits to 
society. 

Never permit slurring remarks on your profes- 
sion. It is one of the noblest of callings, 
and honors its followers. All good men 
are not good agents, but all good agents 
are good men. 

Never, even by implication, suggest the taking 
of a small policy. An application for ten 
thousand dollars is as easily obtained as 
for five, and your estimate of the appli- 
cant's ability to pay for it is likely to be 
accepted as complimentary. 

Never seek to undermine a man's faith in the 
company he is insured in if he is satisfied 
with his contract and the results under 
it. It is better to add to his insurance 
by placing him in your company and 
leaving him to judge by subsequent re- 
sults which policy he prefers to keep up. 
A very few years will tell the story. 

Never waste time in searching for or wrangling 



HOW TO SELL IKSURA^CE. 33 

with the crank who boasts that he " has 
no insurance, never had, and does not 
believe in it." " Ephraim is joined to 
his idols, let him alone." 

Never expend your energies and eloquence in 
discoursing upon the desirability, neces- 
sity and convenience of life insurance. 
The people whom it will reward you to 
talk to concede all that, and a great deal 
more. Urge them to do their duty to 
their dependent families, and to do it 
immediately. 

Never acknowledge defeat in the pursuit of your 
calling. Assume that every well man is 
insurable, and let him see that his mani- 
fest destiny is to insure with you. 

Never reach for your hat when a man of intelli- 
gence and means tells you flatly and, as 
he thinks, conclusively, that he needs no 
insurance and cannot conveniently pay 
for what he is carrying. Show him how 
to get his money back with compound 



34 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

interest and his insurance besides. He 
will listen. 

Never produce a blank application prematurely. 
A sensitive man may postpone the matter 
indefinitely to remind you that it takes 
two to conclude that bargain. 

Never talk insurance inopportunely. It is a 
fertile theme for monologue, but not 
adapted for general conversation. And, 
in general, talk to your man only when 
you and he are alone together ; the pres- 
ence of a third person will often lead to 
mixed conversation, and the thread of 
interest will be broken and lost, at least, 
for that interview. 

Never degrade your profession by importuning 
your friends to insure with you as a per- 
sonal favor. If compelled to ask for 
money, do so on some other pretext. 

Never misuse social opportunities and privileges ; 
utilize your acquaintance only to enlarge 
it, to obtain introductions and interviews. 



HOW TO SELL INSURANCE. 35 

Never try to compel or even urge the compli- 
ance of a hesitating candidate ; you can- 
not divine his reasons for delay, and he 
may resent your aggressiveness. 

Never finish an application until you have given 
a full, clear and complete explanation of 
the plan of insurance proposed, and are 
sure that it is understood by the appli- 
cant. "The business that stays is the 
business that pays." 

Never anticipate objections; it is "borrowing 
trouble." Ignore them if possible. If 
compelled to answer them, do so very 
briefly, though courteously, and resume 
the original argument. 

Never overstate your case. Plain facts are 
stronger arguments than glittering esti- 
mates of the future. Conservative esti- 
mates on policies will prove enough to 
convince any reasonable man, and noth- 
ing will satisfy the unreasonable. 

Never promise more than the company does. 



36 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

The applicant knows that you have no 
authority to make predictions and are 
not personally responsible for results. 

Never talk insurance to a man while he is stand- 
ing or in a public place. Appeals to the 
domestic affections should be made in the 
midst of domestic surroundings. The 
strongest appeals which the agent can 
make are to those sentiments which cling 
around the fireside and beautify and dig- 
nify it. The man who will work all 
day and, perhaps, far into the night to 
protect those of his own household, can- 
not fail to listen to the appeals of the 
agent if made in the bosom of the fam- 
ily. The heart will beat fullest in re- 
sponse to the heart. The family circle 
brings the agent into that close sympathy 
with his man which enables him to se- 
cure both his patronage and influence. 

Never permit importunity to tread upon the 
heels of an inconclusive or unsatisfactory 



HOW TO SELL INSURANCE. 37 

explanation. You cannot expect com- 
pliance until every point is made clear. 
Also, if your candidate has "views," 
listen while he sets them forth ; he will 
always act on his own motion and argu- 
ments rather than yours. He will re- 
gard it as a compliment if you will listen 
attentively; and even if he should be in 
error on a minor or insignificant point, 
do not notice it. 

Never be discouraged by finding your field full 
of rival agents. Their presence proves 
its fertility. There is a harvest for 
somebody; go in and gather your 
share. 

Never mention other companies if you can avoid 
it. When questioned about them answer 
truthfully. Nothing is gained by mis- 
representing a competitor. Do as yo:»L 
would be done by, and be honest in giv- 
ing advice to the holders of policies in 
rival offices. 



38 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

Never skim a place. The cream is not all on 
top, it is rich to the bottom. 

• Never spread over a large territory. Stick to 
one block, one street, one city until they 
are exhaustively canvassed. Stick to the 
men nearest you. They are most acces- 
sible. The idea of covering a large field 
should not be cherished. This has been 
the rock upon which many good solic- 
itors have been wrecked. 

Never seek a general agency until you have 
proved your capabilities as a successful, 
reliable personal canvasser. When you 
have done this, the general agency will 
seek you. 

Never rely upon a big sign, a showy and 
luxuriously-appointed office or flatter- 
ing newspaper notices. Success is the 
reward of active, persistent personal 
endeavor. 

Never keep your supplies in your office or pocket. 
See that they -circulate. Pass them out; 



HOW TO SELL INSURANCE. 39 

scatter the seed, and cultivate it, if you 
want a harvest. 

Never scatter ; concentrate your energies upoi? 
the matter in hand ; you are stronger in 
one direction than in many. Devote all 
that is in you to one company, one prin- 
ciple, one plan, one place. 

Never talk too much. "A man shall not be 
heard for his much speaking." Let your 
moderation be known to all men. Make 
your points, explain them, fortify them, 
insist upon them, but don't monopolize 
the conversation. Give the other man a 
chance. What he has to say is always 
worth hearing. It may show you where 
the hitch is and how to remove it. It 
may disclose his preference for a partic- 
ular plan and save you no end of trouble. 

Never abandon a good impression, but fol- 
low it up until you finish the work. It 
is not enough to make the party believe 
in life insurance — not enough to con- 



40 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

vince him that it is in the main a good 
tiling. It must be good for him. He 
must not simply believe — he must insure. 
It is your business to be efficient at this 
crisis. All preliminary work is value- 
less if you fail here. What he thinks 
or believes is of secondary importance. 
You must make him insure. You must 
get his application and the premium. 
Failure to do this is utter failure. 

Never neglect old business in seeking new. The 
former will help the latter. The good 
influence of an old policy-holder is in- 
valuable to an agent. An agent's best 
references are his satisfied clients. 

Never waste or neglect an opportunity. ' ' Be 
instant in season and out of season," 
Cultivate the medical examiner, the min- 
ister, the leading business men, and all 
who may assist you to extend your ac- 
quaintance. 

Never think that it is all play. No man works 



HOW TO SELL INSURANCE. 41 

harder or more hours than the success- 
ful life agent. 

Never believe that you can learn it all in a min- 
ute. Some men have worked at it for 
years and have much to learn still. 

Never think that it is necessary to tell every 
man you meet all you do know about it. 
He will probably think you are a bore. 

Never feel compelled to knock off every chip 
that you see on a rival agent's shoulder. 
It will, in a majority of cases, be a waste 
of strength, better used in other direc- 
tions. 

Never sit in your office and do nothing because 
the weather is bad. A stormy day men 
have more leisure to give you and more 
inclination to listen. 

Never be discouraged because a man says no. 
Nine men out of ten say no before they 
say yes. 

Never let a rejection discourage you. The com- 
pany is as anxious for business as you 



42 THE ART OF CAKVASSING. 

are, and no applicant will be rejected or 
cut down except for good reasons ; there- 
fore if one you have worked hard to get 
fails to pass, the shortest time you spend 
in regrets the better. Go in for the next 
with hopes for better luck next time. 

Never be without a pocket memorandum-book 
in which to enter the names of possible 
applicants whenever they chance to come 
into your mind, as they are sure to do, 
whether you be reading the daily news- 
papers, walking the street, or journeying 
about the country. 

Never undervalue your own services and abilities, 
thinking that other agents achieve greater 
success on account of superiority in any 
respect. Those who fall behind are usu- 
ally the victims of their own neglect 
rather than of misfortune. 

Never take up life insurance as a make-shift, 
or think that it is a business any one can 
be successful in. If you do, you will 



HOW TO SELL INSURANCE. 48 

doubtless be a failure, and you and the 
company you represent will both be worse 
off than if you had kept out of it. Life 
insurance, more than almost any other 
business, requires peculiar fitness for it. 
Courage, will, perseverance, pluck, skill, 
all these and more must be had by the suc- 
cessful life agent. The work is no child's 
pastime, but because it is esteemed so by 
many, accounts for their want of success. 
Never let an opportunity pass unimproved. Im- 
press upon those persons you daily en- 
counter that the man who has his life 
insured has no cause for worry or anxiety 
as to the welfare of those dependent upon 
him should he be removed from them by 
death. He buys a fortune on install- 
ments, to be delivered to his family in 
the event of his own death. He secures 
the prize for them and runs the race of 
life free from the burdens which anxiety 
for a family entails. His mind is free, 



44 THE AKT OF CAXVASSIXG. 

his capital is free, and so far as his fam- 
ily are concerned, a fortune is practically 
secured. 

Never wait for extraordinary opportunities, but 
make use of common situations ; a long 
walk is better than a short flight. 

Never display irritability or lose your temper. 
Cultivate good nature. It is better than 
" apples of gold set in pictures of silver." 
Good nature never deteriorates in worth ; 
never loses its hold upon the esteem of 
the world. It is always in fashion and 
always in season. Everybody admires it. 
Everybody praises it. It never grows 
stale. It costs little to acquire, and 
nothing to keep; yet it is beyond dia- 
monds in its worth to the agent. You 
can have no better talisman for success 
in soliciting insurance. 

Never talk of yourself. Say nothing good, for 
that is vanity; nothing bad, for that is 
affectation ; nothing indifferent, for that 



HOW TO SELL INSURANCE. 45 

is silly. Let your theme be your com- 
pany; its achievements, its liberality, se- 
curity and superior adaptability to the 
real needs of insurants. 
Never permit the introduction of side issues. 
They are always confusing. The gospel 

OF LIFE INSURANCE SOLICITING IS, IN- 
SURE WITH MY COMPANY, ON THIS PLAN 
AND NOW. 

WHAT TO DO AND HOW TO DO IT. 

Canvassing is an art. Men cannot be insured 
by simply handing them circulars. 

An important factor in canvassing is the tem- 
perament of the agent. Equanimity and self- 
possession are qualities of unspeakable value. 
He should most carefully aim to repress any- 
thing like excitability or irritability. When 
passion is allowed to prevail, the judgment is 
dethroned. 

The knack of grasping a suitable opportunity 



46 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

for presenting the matter of insurance, the man- 
ner of stating the business upon which you ap- 
proach the party you desire to secure, the 
arguments that should be used, are points that 
each solicitor must, by practice, observation 
and experience, grow into for himself ; this ac- 
quirement no company can supply. 

Personal solicitation is absolutely necessary to 
obtain applications for life insurance. Time 
spent in mailing circulars and writing letters is 
worse than wasted ; though the agent had the 
wisdom of all the sages, he would utterly fail 
without the influence of personal contact. 
G-ood letters pave the way as introductions, and 
may occasionally bring inquiries, and should 
always be followed by a personal call. 

You must always push your work, never let- 
ting work push you. Work for results not for 
applause. Be methodical, persistent, patient, 
energetic; waste no time. Endure hardships 
without complaint, because success comes by 
that road. Let your plans be the fruits of 



HOW TO SELL IKSURAHCE. 47 

study and thought, not hasty conclusions. Be 
enthusiastic in your calling and thus impart 
warmth and zeal to others. Look ever on the 
bright side of things. Believe in your calling. 
It has its difficulties and discouragements. But 
it must be remembered that a man can hardly 
be expected to jump into any splendid business 
at once. Very few agents are as successful as 
they could desire at the outset. 

Many good agents fail of success for the want 
of energy, vivacity and snap. It is not enough 
to be honest and earnest, you must be alert, 
active, full of mettle. It is not well to trust to 
the intrinsic merits of your company; you must 
also trust in your ability to make the merit 
win. 

Human nature is not very deeply discerning, 
neither does it move towards the good without 
jogging. You must push your way along. You 
must push discreetly too. Be awake ! Do not 
presume that you will win by your logic, by 
your mathematical demonstrations or by in- 



48 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

fluencing the understanding. While you are 
doing these things your more affable and genial 
neighbor will be rolling in the premiums 
and giving to all concerned complete satisfaction 
by the use of lighter weapons. 

With the present general diffusion of know- 
ledge in reference to life insurance, arguments 
need not be directed to the judgment. Men 
are already convinced that life insurance is all 
right. It is not a question of conviction, but of 
motive to action. Men need leading not con- 
vincing, and agents are wise only in proportion 
as they accept facts as they are. Use such 
levers as tell, and in most cases it is the lever 
that touches the point of good feeling toward 
you that wins. Sledge hammer arguments drive 
men's minds into muddy indifference. They 
are not the thing. It is not the force of argu- 
ments that will win life insurance, it is the force 
of yourself ! 

Have no option for your patrons. By pre- 
senting different plans you induce the disposi- 



HOW TO SELL INSURANCE. 49 

tion to compare and hence to delay. This 
defeats you, temporarily at least. It is better 
to take a given point and carry your patrons on it. 

Appear cheerful and happy. Do not com- 
plain of hard times. Seem to be happy and 
to be prosperous. People will like you all the 
better for it. Be honest and conscientious. Try 
to satisfy and please your customers. You are 
an insurance agent, not a reformer and can 
best serve your own interests by conforming to, 
rather than endeavoring to control the popular 
demand. 

Be cautious in speaking. Eeticence and 
loquacity are equally dangerous. The agent 
who talks too little is as inefficient as the one 
who talks too much. It is a nice point to dis- 
cern when one has talked enough. When you 
make a point do not unmake it. Never antici- 
pate difficulties by bringing them forward your- 
self, but be ready at every point fairly to meet 
them when presented. Some agents are so 
scrupulous that they fear lest the man should 



50 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

not see everything connected with the subject, 
and will argue and demonstrate until the man's 
mind is confused or made indifferent. 

Aim to persuade, to move ; get your candi- 
date interested in the subject; very likely he 
knows all about the fundamental principles of 
life insurance and will appreciate your system at 
the outset. Let him ask questions. If you 
can make him lead off you have secured half a 
success already. Lead him while he thinks he 
is leading you. Compliment his sagacity. Ex- 
cite his curiosity, keep him busy investigating, 
or else talking. 

Avoid figures if possible, few men like them, 
they confuse. A call for them is often a motion 
to reconsider, or worse still, to adjourn. Most 
successful agents figure very little, and never 
except when called upon to do so. 

Every company offers some peculiar advan- 
tages which may be presented attractively. 

Life insurance is business. You should pre- 
sent it as business and talk business from the 



HOW TO SELL INSURANCE. 51 

start. Be brief and explicit. Make your points 
and stick to them. Let every word tell. Words 
tell in proportion to their fitness to the points 
made. Don't waste time in glittering gener- 
alities. A busy man has neither time nor 
inclination to listen to platitudes. " What 
thou doest do quickly." Make your business 
proposal at once. Have it in writing for con- 
venient reference and to obviate tedious repeti- 
tion. Make it terse and to the point. Ten 
thousand dollars insurance for so many dollars 
and cents. Your proposal if not an ordinary 
one will be likely to attract attention and that is 
what you want. It provides your opportunity, 
improve it. You may never have another or 
better one, and write him if you can. Your 
black and white proposition may provoke 
inquiry. This is better still, inquiry betrays 
interest. Answer every question fully, clearly, 
quickly and be sure to stick closely to facts. 
The plain truth is better in every case than the 
most plausible misrepresentation, show him 



52 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

that money will not purchase a better adaptation 
to his real needs than is found in the plans of 
your company. 

The agent should be master of his business, 
be sure of his facts. Guesswork leads to false- 
hood. The good agent must be posted on the 
various questions of cost of business, restric- 
tions on policyholders, reliability of valuations, 
proportion of reserves, and all the other matters 
which it is so easy for an unscrupulous agent to 
misrepresent, and so difficult for an inexper- 
ienced agent to explain. He must be prepared 
not only to say that his company is safe and 
profitable, but to prove it to be so. He 
should speak well of his competitors, unless he 
knows them to be unworthy, and then be able 
to prove his assertions in regard to them. There 
are good points in all companies, and it is bet- 
ter to be insured in any one than in none at all. 
Attacks upon weak companies are dangerous 
and injurious to all, by creating a suspicion as 
to the solvency of every company. 



HOW TO SELL INSURANCE-. 53 

An agent should not only be well grounded 
in the theory and practice of his calling, but 
should keep step with its progress and develop- 
ment as chronicled in the insurance press. Al- 
though he knew it all yesterday, he will know 
little of value to-day unless he regularly reads 
the insurance journals. 

An agent's efforts should be strictly confined 
to his own territory. He should thoroughly 
familiarize himself with every part of it, and so 
arrange that every part will be industriously and 
systematically canvassed at brief intervals, re- 
membering that wherever there is a well man 
with an income who is uninsured, he is a mon- 
ument to the negligence or incapacity of the 
solicitor. 

Dr. Samuel Johnson says, " I look upon a 
day as lost in which I did not make a new ac- 
quaintance." The agent should be continually 
seeking new friends. His success depends to a 
large extent upon his constantly meeting new 
men, and the tact he possesses in making a fa- 



54 THE ART OF CANVASSIKG. 

vorable impression at the start. First impres- 
sions are strong. A good face and a fine coat 
help in making a good impression, and an 
agent's manner and appearance, as well as his 
skill and energy, help in securing business. A 
good manner is the best letter of recom- 
mendation, and strangers are favorably or 
unfavorably impressed according to an agent's 
bearing — as he is polite or awkward, shy or 
self-possessed. 

Personal acquaintance with men is the agent's 
great stock in trade. By every suitable means 
this should be extended. If he is starting busi- 
ness in a city or village where he is not generally 
acquainted, it will be well to turn to the banks, 
public societies, companies and associations of 
various kinds, as found advertised or registered 
in the fly-leaves of the directory, and thus ascer- 
tain the leading men of the place; make out a 
list of those he does not know, and seek means 
and opportunities of favorable introduction to 
them. In many cases, the consulting physician 



HOW TO SELL IXSURAXCE. 55 

will give the agent a list of his patrons, and his 
card as an introduction. It is a great point 
gained if the doctor be thus enlisted. Never 
neglect an opportunity to make a new acquaint- 
ance, even if you have no time at the moment 
to speak to him of insurance. You will derive 
more or less advantage from every acquaintance 
sooner or later. 

Do not ask a man what he thinks of insurance, 
or what he wants; tell him that, and let your 
words appeal directly to his common sense. You 
will encounter men who are convinced, but who 
never can decide to insure. They are all but 
ready to act, but unless you assist them they 
never desire you to write the application. In 
such cases get out your application and stylo- 
graphic pen, and the man will generally allow 
you to decide for him that which he would other- 
wise delay for months or years. Be cautious, 
however, not to antagonize him ; for if a man 
conceives an aversion to an agent, no company 
can present sufficient attractions and no busi- 



50 THE AKT OF CANVASSING. 

ness advantages large enough to counterbalance 
his dislike. 

Seek the very best risks in your community, 
and do not ask the company to insure any but 
persons of unquestionable good health and 
family history. If you have the slightest 
doubt concerning an applicant's eligibility, 
consult the home office, by making a full 
statement of the facts, before putting the 
company to the expense of a medical examina- 
tion. 

Do not urge applicants to take more insurance 
than their income will warrant. 



INDUSTRY. 

The first and indispensable requisite to suc- 
cess in any business is industry. 

The best fruit comes to him who climbs, 
rather than to him who shakes the tree; the 
man who lies at ease basking in the sunshine 
and waiting for ripe plums to fall into his 



HOW TO SELL INSURANCE. 57 

mouth, is likely to go hungry. Labor is the 
genius that changes the world from ugliness to 
beauty. When a lady once asked Turner, the 
celebrated English painter, what his secret was, 
he replied: "I have no secret, madam, but 
hard work." This is a secret that many have 
never learned. 

In no occupation is the temptation to fritter 
away valuable time so great as in that of the 
life insurance agent. There is no way, how- 
ever, of getting on well in a life agency, short 
of absolute hard work, and the devotion of 
time to it. It is eminently true in life insur- 
ance that " the hand of the diligent maketh 
rich;" while u idleness clotheth a man in rags." 

Applicants must be sought. Men must be 
convinced. Kebuffs must be expected at almost 
every corner, which it will require nerve to 
meet and strength to overcome. The most 
sanguine expectation will often be dashed to 
the ground. The application, like the fruit in 
the fable, will appear or be within easy reach 



58 THE ART OF CAKVASSIKG. 

only to be swept away just as the hand is reach- 
ing out to take it. Hopeful cases will daily be- 
come hopeless, and disappointments will be 
numerous. Unless resolnte and persistent, the 
agent will not escape paralyzing discouragement ; 
therefore, the temptation to be idle will be con- 
stant, but mnst be overcome, or little success 
will be gained. Honest, earnest, intelligent, 
well-directed labor is the key which opens the 
door of success to the life insurance solicitor. 

Yon should study the undercurrents influenc- 
ing the social and business life of the community 
in which you live, make yourself an active 
participant therein, and develop those qualities 
of head and heart which command respect. 

You should connect yourself with as many of 
the various social and benevolent organizations 
of your community as possible; but avoid 
creating antagonisms therein ; let some one else 
fill the official positions. 



HOW TO SELL INSURANCE. 59 

INTEGRITY. 

You will best consult your own interest by 
never losing sight of the interest of the com- 
pany, and of those who insure therein. 

Integrity should characterize all your deal- 
ings, not simply because it is right and wise on 
general principles, but specifically because your 
permanent success must depend largely upon 
the confidence you inspire, and the reputation 
you establish in your own community. The 
words of a man of character have weight. Your 
own reputation may have more to do with your 
success than the reputation of the company you 
represent. It will be found a chief element of 
strength particularly in country districts, where 
people do not know much about the company 
you represent, but will insure in the company 
you recommend because of their confidence in 
you. 

Permanent and satisfactory success is not 
possible in any community unless confidence be 



60 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

gained. Misrepresentations, trifling with the 
confidences of men, misleading and deceiving 
them, in the end are sure to be visited upon the 
offender's head. 

You may rest assured, that here as every- 
where "honesty is the best policy." Keep your 
character clean. Tell the truth. Present your 
business in a manly, straightforward way. 
Be strictly temperate, and in all respects bear 
yourself in a manner worthy the dignity and 
moral grandeur of your undertaking. 

The general agent, who comes to stay, and 
whose life and work are bound up with the pro- 
gress and prosperity of the company, is careful 
to offer only such promises as the future, more 
or less remote, will verify. He expects to 
remain on deck for years, and he avoids the 
risk of being confronted hereafter with the 
clamor of unfulfilled expectation. It is different 
with the sort of solicitor who is here to-day and 
gone to-morrow. Custom gives him a brokerage 
commission, and beyond that he knows little 



HOW TO SELL I^SURAXCE. 61 

and cares less. He makes extravagant asser- 
tions, holds out delusive temptations, and 
promises results impossible of realization, know- 
ing that when the awakening of disappoint- 
ment and the day of judgment comes, he will 
be among the missing. 

The few may be deluded by extravagant prom- 
ises, but bright, thoughtful men distrust them. 
They know that insurance costs money, and in 
any responsible and honest company this expense 
is and must be commensurate with the risk to be 
incurred. Better impress your patron with the 
idea that he must pay for his insurance ; it is 
valuable, and worth all it costs. 

Successful business men abhor reckless meth- 
od in their own affairs and condemn it in their 
neighbors. The prudent merchant who expects 
full value for his goods and lives by the legitimate 
profits of his business, distrusts the agent who 
offers something for nothing, and avoids the 
company he represents. 

Benjamin Franklin is often quoted as author- 



G2 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

ity for the value of Life Insurance. He also 
said, " Let honesty be as the breath of thy soul." 

Many agents fail because they endeavor to 
prove too much. Deception is a two-edged 
sword, certain to injure him who handles it. 

Even if by its use agents succeed temporarily, 
dissimulation destroys character, and brings 
well-merited contempt sooner or later. 

Every good agent will feel a pleasure in com- 
plying with the company's rules and regulations 
respecting agencies. He will be prompt and 
regular in all reports and remittances. He will 
be frank and honorable, eschewing all double- 
dealing, secret negotiations with other compan- 
ies while he is supposed to be acting in good 
faith for his own, and the like. He will show 
in every way that he has the company's interest 
at heart. He should feel closely identified with 
it, and work for it earnestly. 

Life Insurance undeniably numbers among 
its advocates unworthy men. What respecta- 
able business does not ? It is, perhaps, as 



HOW TO SELL IXSURAXCE. 63 

much infected with ill-informed or unprincipled 
representatives as most other callings, and, from 
the nature of the business, is more embar- 
rassed by them than any other business. The 
work of canvassing is easily engaged in without 
capital, information, fitness, character, trust- 
worthiness or responsibility, and is as easily 
abandoned. There are, therefore, always float- 
ing into it, and out of it, men who are not es- 
pecially creditable to any business. They can 
no more be kept out of it than the same sort of 
men can be kept out of the Sunday school or the 
church. However the faithful canvasser, when 
coldly received or rudely dismissed, his errand 
unheeded or even unheard, must remember that 
integrity and patient merit will ultimately w T ork 
its way to recognition and reward. At times, 
especially in large cities where men are compar- 
atively unknown to those with whom they hold 
business relations, he may be made the victim 
of the malpractices of less worthy men, by a 
public who do not distinguish between those 



64: THE ART OF CAKVASSIN'G. 

who pursue their business legitimately and those 
who do not ; yet the agent who brings to the 
business of canvassing an average grade of in- 
tegrity and intelligence generally receives the 
consideration that is accorded to the average 
business man. This reflection may help him to 
hopefully endure the treatment which the public, 
never too discriminating, occasionally accords 
to those so engaged. 

DILIGENCE. 

You should be diligent as well as energetic. 
The necessity for this is seen in every walk of 
life. You must mark out for yourself some 
clear and comprehensive plan, or much of your 
industry and zeal will be unavailing. 

It is impossible to lay down rules applicable 
to every circumstance. The general public are 
ignorant of the principles and do not take 
kindly to life insurance. If you ask a man at 
random to take a policy of life insurance, he is 



HOW TO SELL INSURANCE. 65 

almost sure to say no. And if the agent stops 
here he will never be successful, and had better 
quit the business at once. The gate is always 
closed against the agent, and he must shake it, 
and push it, and work on it, until it swings 
open. There is no alternative. You must 
make your way. You must be vigorous, deter- 
mined, and labor judiciously. You must create 
the demand you wish to supply; you must pro- 
duce a sense of want, before you are able to sup- 
ply it; you must excite the feeling of desirable- 
ness and excellence, before your services will be 
employed. A dull statement of facts may im- 
part information, but if it does not arouse any 
interest, it fails in its mission. You must gild 
the pill. 

Let every hour and every moment during 
business hours be utilized. Let every thought, 
in season and out of season, be directed either 
as to the best way to get a fuller knowledge of 
the system, to the best avenues through which 
men can be approached, or as to the most com- 



GO THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

preheusible manner in which the claims of the 
family for protection or those of the office for 
patronage can be presented. 

Make the most of every day. Be diligent, 
improving your time to the utmost. Do not 
loiter about hotels or public offices in conversa- 
tion which has no connection with your busi- 
ness. Neither should you suspend operations 
in the middle of the afternoon simply because 
you have found a pleasant place. Business men 
are more liable to be disengaged during the late 
hours in the afternoon, and when business has 
gone smoothly with them, more disposed to 
spend money for insurance. Time is money to 
any business man, but especially so to the life 
insurance agent. The hours of each day should 
be regarded as dollars and their probable pe- 
cuniary value carefully counted before you con- 
sent to idle or fritter one of them away. While 
an agent may be inclined to suspend during un- 
pleasant and stormy weather, he should know 
that thereby he would sacrifice even better op- 



HOW TO SELL INSURANCE. 67 

portuuities than usual for increasing his list, 
since at such times farmers are about their 
homes, merchants are less occupied, and men of 
business of all classes will more readily give you 
their attention. 

Let it rain or shine, work faithfully from 
morning until night, and, depend upon it, in 
the end your efforts will be crowned with suc- 
cess. This is an occupation that requires con- 
stant exertion, both mental and physical. 

Do not run about from point to point in search 
of better territory. This is a very common mis- 
take with new agents, and a disastrous one, re- 
sulting in waste of time, unsatisfactory and 
profitless experimenting, instead of faithful, 
vigorous work, by which alone you can make 
the business a success. Do the best you can 
under every circumstance, wherever you may 
happen to be at work, and in the end you will 
see that in no other way could you have accom- 
plished so much. After canvassing a town or 
village, do not fly off to some remote portion of 



68 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

your territory, but continue working outward to 
the next nearest place. By this plan you will 
keep constantly where your patrons arc known, 
and where the influence of your list of policy- 
holders will be of greatest value to you. Show 
a man a list of half his neighbors as being pol- 
icyholders, and you bring to bear a tremendous 
force upon him. Twice as many names from 
another locality may have no effect at all. 

Canvass thoroughly. But little more time 
will be required to insure fifty people in a 
neighborhood than ten, and it is self-evident 
that this plan would result most profitably. 

The business is always most profitable ivhere 
the greatest number are insured in the smallest 
space. 



PERSEVERANCE. 

Perseverance is one of the essential qualifi- 
cations of a successful life insurance agent. 
Very few men can be insured at the first inter- 



HOW TO SELL INSURANCE. 69 

view, but must be seen many times before their 
application can be secured. An agent finds it 
is necessary to drop in on such men often and 
talk them up, before they finally yield and fill 
up an application. 

Above all things never be discouraged. An 
agent's capacity for biding his time is a great 
element of success in the difficult enterprise 
which he undertakes. Small things can be done 
in a hurry; large things require time; and the 
difficult things require often a great deal of 
time. It is only the man of long thought and 
unwearied patience who can secure them. 
Waiting is a great element in a life that suc- 
ceeds on a large scale; but it is not waiting 
with one's hands folded; it is waiting with 
energy and intelligence. The man who waits 
in this sense is always at work to secure the 
end he has in view. He opens up fresh ground 
continually, and speaks to at least a dozen new 
men every day in addition to visiting the old 
ones. His energy is untiring, but his intel- 



70 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

ligence saves him from the folly of trying to 
secure by a single output of energy something 
which must be fostered by growth, and which, 
therefore, requires time. Most things come to 
those who wait energetically and intelligently ; 
who keep steadily in mind the end they wish to 
attain; who are not hurried, discouraged, or 
deflected from their purposes ; who keep quietly 
on year after year, steadily nearing the goal and 
finally touching it as the culmination of a flow 
of energy which has often seemed to be sus- 
pended and sometimes to be diverted, but 
which has never for an instant deviated from 
the thing which it sought. 

When business is dull, you should turn your 
attention to procuring new introductions from 
old policy-holders, and base a new line of busi- 
ness upon them. The most important quality 
of a good agent is infinite patience under ad- 
versity. The man who is easily discouraged is 
out of his vocation in the agency business. 
There is not a successful agent to-day who will 



HOW TO SELL IXSURAKCE. 71 

deny that his failures far out-number his suc- 
cesses, especially at the beginning. 

As an agent becomes accustomed to his 
business, however, many of the difficulties that 
beset him at the start will disappear. 

When you feel discouraged — that nothing can 
be done — that your field is exhausted, sit down 
and think over the acquaintances to whom you 
have not as yet presented your plan of insur- 
ance ; make a list of their names, and call upon 
them in a systematic way. 

Ask yourself these questions : How many men 
in my territory have been married in the past 
month? Present the subject of life insurance 
to each of them. 

How many of my acquaintances are expecting 
to be married? Lay before each of them the 
advantages of life protection. 

How many young men do I know of, who, if 
they should die, would leave parents or sisters 
unprovided for? Urge them to make the pro- 
vision in. their power. 



72 THE ART OF CANTASSIXG. 

How many business firms in this vicinity 
would be crippled by the death of either 
partner and the consequent settling of his 
estate? Propose to them to take policies upon 
the lives of each partner for the benefit of the 
firm as a legitimate business expense. 

How many capitalists are there whose invest- 
ments would doubtless suffer for want of ready 
money, should they be removed, and strangers 
settle their estates? Suggest to them all the 
importance of protecting their securities in the 
least expensive way, by insuring their lives. 

How many bread-winners are there within my 
radius, who would leave little children, aged 
parents or loving wives destitute, if the inevit- 
able be not delayed the full time of their hopes? 
Have each of these been sought and found and 
the value of a policy impressed upon them? 

So long as any of these remain uninsured, 
your field is still fertile, and you have no 
occasion to think of it as barren o-r unpro- 
ductive. 



HOW TO SELL LtfSUKAXCE. 73 

ENTERPRISE. 

The strong influences of life prevail from 
above downward, not from the loiuer strata 
upward. 

Do not confine your work to your friends and 
acquaintances. Seek to write the most influ- 
ential men of the locality where you are work- 
ing. Having gained them, you will find the 
weight of that fact a powerful lever to use upon 
others. If your efforts are well-directed, you 
will find this plan productive of a large amount 
of success. Take the best man first ; and, hav- 
ing succeeded with him, you will find his name 
and example of great value in procuring other 
applications. "Example is better than pre- 
cept." If you insure the life of a prominent 
banker, merchant, lawyer or physician, you 
should immediately seek business from other 
bankers, merchants, lawyers and physicians. 

You should lay out your work carefully and 
labor methodically and earnestly. Life insur- 



74 THE AKT OF CANVASSING. 

ance can not be successfully done spasmodically. 
It is the man who works early and late, whose 
time and mind is wholly given to insurance, 
who succeeds. Discouragements will certainly 
come. But in time business will be secured, 
and the income of your agency will increase. 

You should obtain the names of as many of 
the friends of your patrons as possible, and 
letters of introduction whenever you can do so. 
When introductions are obtained seek infor- 
mation about the means, position, etc., of the 
person upon whom you are to call, so that you 
may know how best to approach him, and obtain 
some idea of the amount of insurance that it 
will be wise to suggest. 

Let no opportunity pass where a respectful 
hearing can be had and then let great tact be 
exercised. If you fail to secure applicants you 
should not be cast down; as a rule you will 
need to call many times before a favorable 
opportunity offers, and it is generally unwise to 
waste time in waiting. It therefore follows that 



HOW TO SELL ItfSUBANCE. 75 

if you must call many times on nearly every 
man before you gain a hearing, you must call 
upon many, if you are to accomplish much. 

It requires much time, generally, to carry 
through to a successful conclusion negotiations 
for a policy, and frequently after many dis- 
couragements, which like a clash of cold water, 
cool the enthusiasm; but continuous labor 
brings the harvest and secures the application. 

You must be imbued with but one thought, 
and that is, to insure men. Your text must 
be to protect those who are unable to protect 
themselves, and at the same time, show the 
advantages of insurance as an investment. 

Men who have achieved great results in any 
pursuit have been those who have concentrated 
their thoughts and efforts upon the particular 
objects that have brought them distinction. 

The success of an agent depends upon the 
concentration of his mind and will upon his 
work, which is, to impress the mind and turn 
the will of other men and make them realize 



76 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

that the greatest uncertainty in life is life 
itself; the greatest certainty is death, and in- 
duce them to take definite action and be prepared 
for both by insuring. The successful agent 
believes in life insurance, believes in himself 
and believes in his company. He enters the 
business with zest and zeal, works with might 
and main, is clear in head, strong in heart and 
filled with enthusiasm for his vocation. Some 
of the greatest solicitors have been called fana- 
tics on the subject of life insurance; but ex- 
perience showed it to be a fanaticism which 
not only produced a good income to the agent, 
but also placed a financial shelter over many a 
widow and orphan. 



SYSTEM. 

Let the agent keep in mind that "order is 
Heaven's first law." System is indispensable. 
It can accomplish wonders. It reduces labor to 
its simplest form and is essential to the rapid 



HOW TO SELL ISTSUBANCE. 77 

dispatch of business and the accomplishment 
of great results. 

By system alone, as by a magic talisman, may 
time be so economized that business can be at- 
tended to and opportunities saved for study, 
general reading, exercise, recreation and society. 
"A. man that is young in years," says Lord 
Bacon, " may be old in hours, if he has lost no 
time." Hurry and confusion result from the 
want of system ; and the mind can never be clear 
when a man's affairs are in disorder. It is re- 
corded of the Pensionary De Witt, o± the United 
Provinces, who fell a victim to the fury of the 
populace in the year 1672, that he did the whole 
business of the republic, and yet had time left 
for relaxation and study. When he was asked 
how he could possibly bring this to pass, his 
answer was: " Nothing was so easy; for that it 
was only doing one thing at a time, and never 
putting off anything till to-morrow that could 
be done to-day." "This steady and undissi- 
pated attention to one object," remarks Lord 



78 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

Chesterfield, "is a sure mark of a superior 
genius." It is of the highest importance, also, 
that an agent should cultivate the habit of 
accuracy. It is a great recommendation in the 
eyes of intelligent professional, mercantile and 
business men. Their good graces are only to be 
gained by the strictest integrity and honor, by 
a courteous demeanor and by attention, punctu- 
ality and accuracy, in the transaction of business. 

In the office there should be " a place for 
everything and everything in its place." A 
slovenly appearance in the office is indicative of 
careless habits generally. 

An agent's books should be systematized and 
well posted, so that he can turn to any point in 
a moment. Every possible fact should there be 
properly recorded; such as his accounts with 
the company, and with each policyholder, and 
the residence, &c, &c, of the latter. 

He should devote a particular part of each 
day, regularly, to canvassing. Without this, 
one may do business; with it, he must do it. 



HOW TO SELL INSURANCE. 79 

If there be any points connected with the 
business that he does not clearly comprehend — 
such, for instance, as the various forms of in- 
surance offered — he should write at once to the 
officers for information. 

Applications should be filled out with extreme 
care, as this application is the basis of a con- 
tract upon which possible widows and orphans 
may depend for their all. You have no right to 
peril it by haste or carelessness, or to subject 
the company and yourself to delays and annoy- 
ances from the same cause. Give attention to the 
necessity of complete answers to the questions 
on the application blank. Before you send it 
in, look it over carefully and see that some kind 
of a definite answer has been made to every 
question. This is as much, perhaps more, for 
your benefit than for the company's. Unless it 
is done, the application is liable to be held for 
correspondence or returned to you for comple- 
tion, when you are put to inconvenience of hunt- 
ing up the applicant to rectify the omission. 



80 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

Every question has an important bearing in the 
consideration of the risk ; therefore, the necessity 
of the above will be understood. Always insert 
the full Christian name, both of the applicant 
and the beneficiary. Be sure and spell all names 
correctly. 

Have the medical examination made without 
unnecessary delay. 

Where a party is rejected from want of suffi- 
ciently good health, it is well to ease over the dis- 
appointment as far as possible ; to advise that he 
see the medical examiner some other time ; and 
to express the hope that he will yet be able to 
forward a good application. 

The delivery of policies should be made as 
soon as possible after they come into the hands 
of an agent. 

Delay may bring a change of mind on the 
part of an applicant. A large proportion of re- 
turned policies would have been taken if agents 
had promptly and personally attended to this 
business. 



HOW TO SELL LNTSUKANCE. 81 

When payment is made upon a policy, it af- 
fords an opportunity for the agent to congratu- 
late the insured upon his good investment, to 
inquire if he does not wish to increase the 
amount, and if he will name some of his friends 
who' might desire to take out policies. 

Complaints are often made by companies that 
agents who do little or nothing do not surrender 
their commissions. It is but fair that an ap- 
pointee either discharge the duties of his office 
or vacate it in favor of another. Otherwise, 
important territory will be unoccupied, and the 
company will suffer harm from the impression 
which men get that it is doing no business. 

A dead agency is worse than none. When a 
live man subsequently takes hold of it, he finds 
its antecedents a serious obstacle. He had a 
thousand times rather begin anew. 

The moment, then, that the agent becomes 
satisfied that he cannot successfully fill the 
place, he should resign. 



82 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

ENLARGING THE BUSINESS. 

" The best way to do a thing is to do it." 
While some men are getting ready to work, and 
" operating " their machinery, others will step 
in and accomplish the same thing without any- 
body's knowing it. There are two kinds of 
agents. Some of them mean well, yet they 
think they must have a very large amount of 
stationery, plates on their doors, signs to place 
about the town, etc., and they are constantly 
asking for something of this kind. On the 
other hand, there is another class of agents who 
do little of this sort of thing. They seize oppor- 
tunities, seek for tjiem, and when they find 
them do not make a great noise, but do the 
work right up. 

While one agent may be puffing his office in 
every newspaper in his neighborhood from year 
to year, the working agent is steadily and noise- 
lessly accumulating a large business. 

In getting business, notices in the papers can 



HOW TO SELL IXSURA^CE. 83 

generally be secured; if not directly, then 
through the influence of other parties. One 
good editorial notice is worth a year's advertise- 
ment in the business columns. By all means 
induce the editor to take a policy, if the thing 
is possible, so that he can say, we are insured in 
this company. 

Good literature plays a useful part in the 
education of policyholders. Tact should be 
used in its selection and circulation. 

Judicious distribution of circulars is desirable. 
If the company is wholly unknown in the com- 
munity, showcards, circulars, annual state- 
ments, etc., may be freely given away. In 
many cases however, in getting an application 
no reading matter will be serviceable. We 
know agents who, as a rule, just take the tables 
of the company in their hands and go out and 
get business, very rarely using any other printed 
matter. But where one will think about it, it 
is wise to give him something to read, espec- 
ially if it explains and enforces the advantages 



84 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

you offer. So far as documents of any kind are 
really effective, they are a cheap investment, 
and they should be put into the hands of those 
already insured, as well as the uninsured. This 
will increase their confidence, and in many 
cases they will show them to their friends. 

The agent should take some insurance on his 
own life for as large an amount as he can con- 
veniently pay for, and should carry his policy in 
his pocket to show it, pointing out its provisions 
and advantages, when asked as he frequently 
is, " Are you insured in this company?" For 
it is inconsistent for any man to go about urg- 
ing others to do something in the way of invest- 
ment which he has not faith or enthusiasm 
enough to embrace himself. Every man can 
insure his life, and agents who say so, as many 
of them do a score of times every week, and at 
the same time omit doing this themselves, are 
constantly in a state of awkwardness. 

Life agents should cultivate the acquaintance 
of the clergy, and by every suitable means en- 



HOW TO SELL INSURAXCE. 85 

deavor to secure their influence. In most cases 
a minister will give a note of introduction, or a 
general letter commendatory of the agent and 
his company. Often, too, a pastor will furnish 
a list of the members of his parish most likely 
to insure. It is of great importance to effect an 
insurance upon the minister's life. Where he is 
unable, or disinclined, some one of his parish- 
ioners may be induced to take up the matter 
and raise the premium, and make a present to 
the pastor of a policy. Suggest this to some of 
the members of his church. 

Becoming associated with the Sunday school 
will not only extend one's usefulness in general, 
but enhance his success as an agent. It gives 
him a standing in the community, introduces 
him to young men of enterprise and growing 
influences, and identifies him with the congre- 
gation and its leader. 

Where a life falls in the community with an 
insurance upon it, especially if it is of great 
advantage to the surviving members of the 



80 THE ART OF CAXVASSINC4. 

family, particulars may be profitably obtained, 
and the circumstances commented upon. Per- 
haps the relatives and friends may be induced 
to insure. 

Very few communities do not furnish ex- 
amples where a life policy upon the deceased 
parent would have been a God-send to the 
afflicted household. It is not only proper to 
refer to such cases, but an agent is derelict in 
duty if he does not interpret and apply such 
examples as a warning against the neglect of 
life insurance. Sudden deaths give especial 
point to such appeals. 

On commencing operations every field man 
should prepare a small memorandum book, al- 
phabetically arranged, into which, under its 
proper letter, the name of every likely applicant 
should be entered, with such information as the 
agent may have been able to secure as to age, 
companies insured in, &c, &c, something on 
the following plan : 



HOW TO SELL INSURANCE. 87 



AGENTS VISITING MEMORANDUM BOOK. 



Name 

Address 

Age . . Married No. of Children . 

Occupation 

Probable Means, $ 

Is he insured ?. Amount, $ 

Names of Cos 



Dates of Visits. 
1st 18 ; 2d 18 ; 3d.,.. ..18 ; 



REASONS AGAINST INSURING. 

Lacks entire confidence 

Scarcity of money 

Undecided as to company 

Wife objects 

Opposed to insurance on principle 

No confidence in insurance companies ..... 
Objects to the large salaries, etc., paid by Cos, 

Pre]udiced against our Co. in particular 

No means to insure 

Can use money to better advantage than 

any Co 

Uninsurable (bad risk) 

Don't need insurance , 



88 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

The memorandum book may also be profitably 
filled with names of friends, and of those whose 
acquaintance may be cultivated. It is ever to 
be borne in mind that personal canvass is the 
one sure way to success. All other means put 
together will not amount to so much as the 
single matter of intelligent activity. That which 
pays, and pays with compound interest, is the 
direct grapple of the agent's mind upon the in- 
dividual minds of the community. 

Write this down as an axion: "Insurance 
will not come into the office ; I must go out and 
invite it in." 

A shrewd agent will make every business re- 
lation tell upon his insurance business. The 
merchant, the mechanic, the banker, the phys- 
ician, the grocer, the tailor, the printer, may 
reasonably be solicited to take a policy on the 
consideration of your patronage. If approached 
in a delicate way, no man will think the less of 
you for suggesting this. It is a fair business 
transaction. 



HOW TO SELL INSURANCE. 89 

The hunter does not go into the woods and 
fields without ammunition. Neither should the 
Life agent ever cross the threshold of his office 
without being in a condition to "produce the 
documents " in case they are wanted. The neg- 
lect of this simple precaution has lost many an 
agent more than one application. While going 
for the gun the game fled. Be always ready to 
say, " Well, let us fix it up right now. There's 
no time like the present." 

An agent should be on the watch for stirring 
business men, adapted to a life agency, who 
might like to change their occupation. These 
he will recommend to the home office for 
agents, either in his own or some other field. 
If he meets with agents of other companies who 
desire to dissolve their present connection, it is 
proper to mention it ; but it is not honorable 
to try and induce them to change companies. 

It is a mistake (as a rule) to imagine that 
nothing can be done in a given locality because 
there are "too many companies operating 



90 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

there," or " the people have all they want," or 
"there is too little money in circulation." In 
one. sense the more companies the better. The 
mind of the community is likely to be stirred 
up to the matter, and will realize the advan- 
tages you offer, if you will but properly explain 
them. Life Insurance one day will be as com- 
mon as fire insurance, and you may as well 
think of exhausting one as the other. Well- 
directed efforts always produce satisfactory re- 
sults. It is not so much the field as the man. 

In large business or manufacturing establish- 
ments, it is important to get the good will of 
the principal head, to insure him if possible, and 
so obtain favorable access to those in his employ. 
Very often, also, the superintendent or foreman 
of a concern is a more useful friend than even 
the principal. Or one of the clerks or common 
workmen may, by proper influences, become of 
very great advantage in introducing the agent 
to his associates in the shop or the warehouse. 

The certificate of the friends required inmost 



HOW TO SELL INSURANCE. 91 

applications should be procured, and this will 
serve to introduce in a most favorable way, not 
only you, but the subject of life insurance 
and the company, with all the force of example, 
and the fact that a particular acquaintance has 
taken a policy will often be a sufficient induce- 
ment for him at least to look into the subject, 
as most men are inclined to follow old friends 
whose opinions they respect. At the same time, 
he will naturally think well of the company to 
which his friend has given the preference. 
Should no friend's certificate be required by 
your company, there would probably be no ob- 
jection to your obtaining for canvassing pur- 
poses as many as possible from every applicant. 
When practicable, get those about to be insured 
to go with you to their friends, introducing 
you, and commending to them the insurance, 
and the company you represent. This has great 
weight. 

If he be wise in enlarging his business, an 
agent willbe particular to enlist in his interest, 



92 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

so far as he can, every one who takes a policy. 
In some cases, a slight compensation may en- 
sure effort in this direction. But in other cases 
the offer of this would have a contrary effect. 
Here is room for wisdom and good sense. But 
it is highly desirable that an agent have numer- 
ous influences around him silently operating to 
his advantage. 

With some agents it is enough to find that 
one is already insured. How much better to 
congratulate him, and ask, "Would you not 
like to increase the amount?" and if for life 
purpose an endowment policy. 

We know an agent who never spends time 
talking to a man who doesn't already carry in- 
surance. He says he leaves that preliminary 
work to others and it does not pay him to spend 
time now-a-days persuading a man of the value 
of insurance. The man whom it pays him to 
canvass is the one who recognizes its value. 



HOW TO SELL IXSUKAXCE. 93 

COMPENSATION. 

Some agents are given to perpetual uneasi- 
ness as to terms and better chances, etc. But 
it should not be forgotton that what is for the 
agent's interest is for the company's interest; 
and that, therefore, it is to be presumed that a 
company will deal liberally with its agents. 
Whatever is reasonable is pretty sure to be 
granted. 

The really successful men have worked their 
way up slowly but surely, one step at a time. 
They have not been paid a high commission, 
but have made money by the volume of business 
transacted. 

You will not make as much money with a 
high rate of commission in a company that af- 
fords you little facility, as you will on a lower 
commission in a company where you have greater 
facilities and can secure a large volume of busi- 
ness. 

An agent may settle this in his mind, that 



94 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

whatever he is worth he will ultimately obtain. 
If he proves himself worthy of a better chance, he 
will be sure to get it. The thing for him to do 
is to show that he can do Life business. 
This is the only thing he need concern himself 
about at the outset. He only asks a foothold, 
a chance to demonstrate that he has capacity 
for this work. If it is in him it will be sure to 
come out ; and he will soon find his level and 
get as good a position somewhere as he deserves. 
Many a successful agent becomes early un- 
successful by fancying that he can largely 
increase his business and his income by the em- 
ployment of sub-agents. In other words, by 
getting others to do his work. It usually re- 
quires some bitter experience to remove this 
fallacy from his mind. To be a successful 
manager requires executive abilities of a high 
order and the power to handle and inspire 
others, which very few possess. The employ- 
ment of sub-agents results in loss far more fre- 
quently than in profit. The small margin of 



HOW TO SELL IXSUEAKCE. 95 

profit on their business is usually more than 
absorbed in over-advances and occasional defal- 
cations. Furthermore, the time employed in 
instructing sub-agents and in aiding them would 
bring far better results to the competent solicitor 
if devoted to personal canvassing. 

Before one can become a successful manager 
of a life agency, he must have had actual work 
in getting applications. Nothing can compen- 
sate for the lack of this experience. The 
beginner in the business must therefore begin 
here at the bottom. He must take right hold 
of canvassing at the beginning, when he will 
learn more in a week than he would in a month 
of theorizing. 

There is no business in which a man can en- 
gage, without capital, that will yield the pecu- 
niary return which may be secured through a 
life insurance agency, managed with tact and 
energy, yet the business is peculiar in many 
respects. The work cannot be laid out in ad- 
vance, save in the most general way. It has 



Oft THE ART OF CAXVASSING. 

been happily said, "the agents who command 
tlie rewards of successful endeavor in the field 
work of life insurance, are men of many parts, 
and of unusual adaptability. They acquire the 
faculty of fitting themselves to varied situations 
and circumstances as the occasion requires, and 
become in an eminent degree, practical hard- 
working business men. While it is not neces- 
sary that they shall in any measure stultify 
their moral convictions, or put themselves in 
the position of being ' all things to all men,' 
they must exercise a kindly tolerance of very 
varying ideas and opinions, and in a reasonable 
way ingratiate themselves with men of widely 
different characteristics, habits and stations in 
life. They must be broad-minded and liberal 
to a degree; appreciative of friendship and 
friendship's many obligations ; and without con- 
doning crime or wrong, must be willing to con- 
strue human nature in the kindliest way, and 
not show a disposition to be uncharitable in 
judging the words or actions of others. 



BOW TO SELL INSURANCE. 97 

The aggressiveness of field work, forced upon 
them by a competition that is almost wrought 
up to fever heat, requires the use of many tools 
— tools which are generally either of a literary, 
sympathetic, or intellectual kind ; but however 
keen the degree of competition may be, no life 
agent is ever really put to the requirements of 
securing his success by disreputable means, 
unless such means lie in the direct line of his 
own natural tendency. Not only is success in 
Life Insurance strictly compatible with the 
highest degree of honesty, integrity of purpose 
and business principle, but we may truly say 
that these qualifications are absolutely essential 
to any life agent who would not only be success- 
ful, but who would be continuously successful 
throughout his whole career in the field. 

He must be diplomatic in his correspondence, 
conversation and intercourses with others ; he 
must exercise an unusually high degree of 
skill in avoiding enmities ; and by his affability, 
geniality and unquestioned honor, must always 



98 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

be in the position of deserving the friendship 
of those whose friendship can be of the greatest 
assistance to him. 

No business or profession requires any greater 
degree of skill than does that of Life Insurance, 
and therefore, the profession of the successful 
life insurance agent can take rank with that of 
his brothers in any other walk of life, however 
successful they may be, or however eminent they 
may become ; and while perhaps, there maj be 
somewhat less of preliminary study and training 
required in his case than in some others, he can 
look forward to the end of his work with the 
utmost complacency, not only with the convic- 
tion that it will furnish him with a just pecuni- 
ary tribute to his labor, but also with the 
conviction that the work he has achieved has 
been second to none other in its beneficial influ- 
ence upon society, and its help and saving effect 
upon the afflicted and distressed. There is no 
more beneficent business, none more brotherly 
and humane." The nearer the agent approaches 



HOW TO sel£ ixsurance. 99 

this description, the more certain is he of 
achieving great and permanent results. We 
know of many such — aggressive, enterprising, 
independent, original — having a love for their 
fellow men, who find the business of an agency 
both agreeable and remunerative — men who 
carry sunshine wherever they go. 

IS IT BEST TO INSURE? OBJEC- 
TIONS ANSWERED. 

Life insurance is the poor man's estate, the 
rich man's safeguard. All who have a pecu- 
niary interest in the existence of a life may 
protect that interest by insurance. 

Life Insurance is, in its broadest sense, an 
agreement among a certain number of men to 
equalize the burdens of life, and to diminish its 
risks, by combining to aid each other. It an- 
ticipates the future and guards against the in- 
firmities of age or the calamities which may 
impend over those who are dependent. 



100 THE ART OF CAHVASSIXG. 

It is a step towards the abolition of poverty, 
a cheek to the hazardous speculations prompted 
by the necessity of gain for the benefit of pos- 
terity, a grateful relief to homes saddened by 
worry and anxiety. 

It is identical in principle and actual function 
with all forms of property insurance ; every pro- 
ductive life as truly represents capital and 
property as does any other thing capable of 
money production ; its loss is as truly a money 
loss to those who are dependent upon its earn- 
ings; whether it produce money in sowing- 
wheat, making an engine, or writing a book, it 
has a distinct measurable value, to be ascer- 
tained at any time by taking the present worth 
of what it earns combined with its chances of 
duration by the law of mortality. Time and. 
Money are capital; the latter of the rich, the 
former of everybody. 

Life Insurance is a commodity that can be 
bought and sold. It is, notwithstanding its 
beneficent and moral bearings, purely a busi- 



HOW TO SELL INSURANCE. 101 

• 

ness transaction. It lias a value and, therefore, 
is purchasable. It possesses intrinsic merit and, 
therefore, is worth patronizing. It creates 
wealth on the instant, and for the noblest pur- 
pose for which wealth can ~be accumulated. It 
offers protection as well as savings bank advan- 
tages. It carries a risk safely which no man can 
safely carry himself. In a business light, there- 
fore, life insurance is desirable, and pays the 
policyholder all it costs. Indeed, our best busi- 
ness men are our best insurers. 

Life Insurance is now a recognized fact in our 
social and financial economy. It takes its place 
not only as a privilege, but as a great moral 
duty, so incumbent upon every one whose life 
is regulated by the dictates of conscience and 
common prudence, that any argument or ap- 
peal in its behalf would seem to be uncalled 
for. The following arguments, although pre- 
sented many times and perfectly familiar to 
the expert, may be of use to the beginner 
when he encounters a man who fails to 



102 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

keep the plainest of moral obligations by 
insuring his life. 

Probably nothing new that is true or true 
that is new can be said about this subject. 
Usually mankind do not need to be instructed 
so much as to be reminded of what they already 
know. Few policies would be written without 
the assistance of agents; for although life in- 
surance is admitted to be a duty, no man vol- 
untarily insures his life; it is the agent who 
gets the business and not the company. 

It is a condition not a theory that confronts 
the man whose life is not insured. There are 
hundreds of ways to explain away most theories; 
but the condition goes right on staring the sub- 
ject in the face. The apathy to the security 
and comfort of one's family which that man 
evinces who refuses to make this necessary pro- 
vision is indeed hard to understand. If a man 
risked all else, it would scarcely be supposed 
that he would put the safety of his own flesh 
and blood in the balance. And yet, that is 



HOW TO SELL INSURANCE. 103 

just what he does when he repels the efforts of 
the life agent. A little thrift, a little hoarding 
of the present means, and it is done. This is 
the sermon, and the text is, " Now is the ac- 
cepted time." Do to-day as you ivould ivish if 
'to-morrow should not come. 

Precisely the motive to be urged in a given 
case cannot, of course, with certainty be speci- 
fied. Each agent must choose and use his own 
special argument. We know agents who very 
seldom use more than one, e. g., that of an in- 
vestment. Others make the protection feature 
a specialty. 

A wise agent will soon see which motive is 
most effective and use that. Business argu- 
ments will, as a rule, effect far more than sen- 
timents. In fact, the financial argument has 
largely taken the place of the religious one ; the 
philanthropist of the past has merged into the 
financier of the present. The argument that 
tells may, in many individual instances, be a 
very weak one in itself, but if it answers the 



104 THE ART OF CANVASSIHG. 

purpose, it is everything. The agent should 
confine himself to a few strong points, and al- 
ways present them in words so clear that any 
one can understand them. 

If an objection is not started, do not make 
reference to it. We can only hint how such may 
be answered in a number of cases. No possible 
objections of a valid nature can be brought 
against Life Insurance. None of them will 
bear examination. They are all founded in 
ignorance, prejudice, or misconception. 

Provision for one's dependents should, ob- 
viously, be immediate. One to-day is worth two 
to-morrow. The old-fashioned slow way of 
"laying up something for a rainy day," has 
proven itself wholly defective. 

Death does not wait for slow accumulations. 
Not one in ten thousand in the old way, lays by 
a competence for his family. Life insurance is 
an immediate provision. In this respect it 
stands alone. No other mode of accumulation 
is equal to this. It gives the certainty of an 



HOW TO SELL INSURANCE. 105 

estate for the uncertainty of life. It secures a 
fortune instantly, the moment a policy is made 
out and the premium paid. It possesses ex- 
clusively the power to create at once an adequate 
provision against the destitution of dependents 
in case of death. 

You insure against fire. Why? Because your 
house or store may burn down. But no fire 
may ever happen, and so you will have paid a 
definite sum, year after year, for no return 
whatever, except the sense of security, " Very 
good," you say; that is worth the outlay. But 
apply this same reasoning to Life Insurance. 
You must die some day ; there is no contingency 
here. A small payment annually will abso- 
lutely secure your family against want or care 
when the inevitable hour comes to you. The 
longest life must have an end. 

Do ;you say you need all your earnings 
for the support of your family? True. 
But what will the family do when you and 
your earnings are cut off by the hand of 



106 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

death? Will they not then wish you had 
been insured ? 

Men are apt to regard life insurance as a 
luxury to be indulged in after all the necessities 
have been secured. Such a view of the matter 
is all wrong, and has often proved a serious 
mistake. 

A man has a duty beyond the grave. The 
moral claim of the wife and children to the pro- 
tective care of the husband and father extends 
beyond this life. For a family to be deprived of 
its natural guardian is a great affliction; but to 
be left destitute by the improvidence of that 
guide and protector fills the cup of bitterness. 
It is the christian duty of every husband to 
make a competent provision for his wife — 
of a father for his children — and of a son for 
his aged parents. 

When indebtedness is urged as an objection, 
show its fallacy, e. g., thus: If you die with 
debts unpaid, where will your family be? If 
you insure and die, your creditors may be paid 



HOW TO SELL I^SURA^CE. 107 

at once. Did you ever hear the assignee of a 
bankrupt blame him for spending money for a 
life insurance policy? 

If one says he is well off, show that the rich 
often become poor. No man is so fortunate as 
to be always successful. Mention cases that the 
man has known. Also urge that at his death 
the family would need cash in hand. Thus: It 
might take twelve, eighteen or twenty-four 
months for your executor to settle up your 
estate. Were you to die now, would they have 
enough ready cash left them to live in the style 
they now live in, and meet the extra expenses 
incident to your decease? You think not. 
Then procure a generous life-policy, which 
would be immediately convertible into money. 

It is no argument against insurance that a 
man can use his money more advantageously 
than the life company. For he assumes that he 
will live, he ignores the uncertainty of life and 
begs the question completely. Show that his 
may not be an average life as to duration ; the 



108 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

life of any given individual is proverbially un- 
certain. The rate of mortality is only certain 
with respect to a large number of persons. Ig- 
norance relies on chance, intelligence on laws. 
The argument for insurance is not speculation, 
but prudence, benevolence, and the higher and 
better qualities of the human heart. 

Seasonable profit, with the other great advan- 
tages of life insurance, satisfies reasonable men. 
A sharp eye can see both safety and profit in 
many policies offered by the various companies. 

Sometimes religious scruples exist. Show 
that religion does not forbid, but enjoins, pru- 
dence. Scripture declares, "If any man pro- 
vide not for his own, especially those of his own 
house, he hath denied the faith and is worse 
than an infidel." And this provision obviously 
should be made to extend (as it may by insur- 
ance) beyond the possible fall of the parent's 
own life. It is not enough to feed his house- 
hold daily while living, he is bound to see that 
the household loaf is not buried with the house- 



HOW TO SELL INSURANCE. 109 

hold head. The best promptings of a man's 
nature, be he rich or poor, appeal to him to in- 
sure his life. Every consideration of love, de- 
votion and religion urges him to insure at once, 
and place his family beyond the possibility of 
pecuniary suffering, arising from the misfor- 
tunes that accompany an untimely death. 

Eev. Dr. Cummings of London, said: "The 
insurance of life is one of the most christian 
things that I know; for what is it? It is tak- 
ing the load that would crush one family, and 
spreading it over twenty thousand families; so 
that a mere drop lights upon each, instead of 
the overwhelming torrent falling upon one. It 
seems to me a beautiful illustration of bearing 
one another's burdens. And, therefore, let every 
young man entering upon life, every head of a 
family, whether high or low, set his house in 
order so far as to insure his life." 

Where doubt exists as to the safety of insur- 
ance, show that life companies have stood secure ; 
that they cannot, if properly managed, fail; 



110 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

and that such companies thrive even upon the 
ruins of other financial concerns ; for by the mis- 
haps of others, money is increased in value, and 
it is in money that these institutions deal. In 
times of commercial disturbance men rush into 
life insurance, thereby increasing the business 
of such institutions, and making it profitable. 

The experience of the commercial world can 
point to no such permanency as is seen in life 
insurance companies, nor does any class of 
institutions compare with them for stability, 
uniformity, safety and reliability. 

If its expensiveness is talked of, show that it 
is not an expense, but an accumulation. To 
talk of " expense " of Life Insurance as though 
the premiums paid in were lost, is a great im- 
propriety in the use of language. The prem- 
ium on a life policy is no more an expense 
than the payments a man makes for a farm, or 
for a certificate of stocks. It is an investment 
of a certain sum per annum, for which one 
receives a certificate for a specified amount for 



HOW TO SELL INSURANCE. Ill 

the benefit of his heirs, with less risk, trouble, 
or expense than any other possible species of 
investment. It is no more an " expense " than 
a deposit in a savings bank. It is neither more 
nor less than an absolute sure investment of 
whatever you can, by a well-considered economy, 
spare, in order to procure, upon the best terms, 
a sufficiency to support your family, or your 
own- old age. 

Whether regarded as a speculation, invest- 
ment, or reversion, there is nothing which offers 
such a profitable and accumulative return for 
even small sums of money as a Life Insurance 
policy. 

But at any rate how little does it cost : Life 
Insurance, while always a sure and simple anti- 
dote against poverty, its cheapness is affected by 
delays, which year by year increase the uncer- 
tainty of life, and compel a proportionate ad- 
vance in the rate of premium to be paid. Ten 
cents a day amounts in one year to thirty-six 
dollars and fifty cents. This sum would secure 



112 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

a life-policy for a man aged twenty-one of about 
$2,000. Will not the income be used up any- 
how? So that what is put in here is so much 
gained. There are idle pleasures which are 
daily indulged to excess, that might be abridged 
with advantage to health, and even comfort, 
without in any way infringing upon the enjoy- 
ments of home ; while wife, family and friends 
would esteem a policy the more that was pur- 
chased in a spirit of self-denial. 

Another objects: I am a young man ; there is 
time enough yet. If you consult your true 
interests, you will commence the exercises of 
prudence and forethought while you are young. 
The investment of a portion of your earnings in 
a life policy now will tend powerfully to culti- 
vate those qualities. Those whose good opinion 
will be of great value to you will esteem you 
more highly if they know that you have thus 
early obtained insurance on your life. 

You can now take a policy at a yearly rate of 
premium extremely low, and which will never 



HOW TO SELL IXSURAHCE. 113 

be increased; whereas with every year of ad- 
vancing age the rate of premium advances; 
besides, if you are now in good health and 
young, you ought to avail yourself of the oppor- 
tunity, lest by waiting a few years some disease 
may fasten upon you, which, though not fatal 
may prevent your getting insurance on your 
life. Urge immediate action lest it be lamented 
when it is too late. 

The risk from the uncertainty of life may be 
urged. Two hundred and sixty-nine men in 
one leading company died within one year after 
insuring. Of these four cases matured within 
twenty-four hours, twenty-one within the first 
month, and sixty-seven were reported and paid 
within the first quarter of the year. 

These illustrations of the uncertainty of life, 
even among those who give the best promise of 
a lengthened career, are all the more striking in 
view of the rigid administration of the medical 
department of this company. During the same 
year the number of applicants rejected because 



114 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

of failure to come up to the standard was 
10,395, the ratio of declination being over 
twelve per cent. Thus, to the lesson given of 
the uncertainty of life is added the lesson of the 
danger of action delayed to a period of uninsur- 
ability, and consequent loss of the advantages 
that result from timely recourse to the insurance 
system. 

Does present good health assure you of another 
year of life? How many of your acquaintances, 
with constitutions as good as yours, have sud- 
denly sickened and died? Is it wise, is it safe, 
to presume on length of days, and delay pro- 
viding for those you love? Human life has a 
money value, but the standard of to-day cannot 
measure that value but for to-day ; it is wisdom 
not to delay protecting the future. 

Urge that one knows all this — must admit it ; 
and should act on it. Put the case thus: The 
chance of your dying within the year is two per 
cent, while the chance that your dwelling will 
burn within the year is less than a quarter of 



HOW TO SELL INSURANCE. 115 

one per cent. There are, therefore, eight chances 
that you will die within a week to one that 
your house will burn within the same time ; yet 
you will hasten to insure the latter, and be per- 
fectly indifferent to the former. 

Another says : I'll do it next year ; it will cost 
me no more then. Are you sure if alive, that 
you will then be in sound health? Your life is 
not only very uncertain, but equally so is your 
continuance in sound health. Although you 
may be alive next month or next year, yet if 
your health has been seriously impaired, you 
cannot get insurance on your life, however 
anxious you may then be to do so. 

Another objects: Is it not all gambling? 
Must we not all die? Do you make no pro- 
vision against sickness? Do you not take every 
precaution to protect yourself from disease? 
Does the fact that you must die make it im- 
proper to provide for that event? On the con- 
trary, are you not charged by every dictate of 
duty and religion to do so? 



116 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

We do not propose to insure you against 
death, but to give you the advantage of the 
average mortality in several thousand lives by 
the payment to your representatives of the 
amount insured in the event of your early 
decease. To fully appreciate the great principle 
of Life Insurance, we should reflect that the 
average duration of human life in the civilized 
world does not exceed a period of thirty-three 
years. Infancy, youth, manhood and decrepi- 
tude have but this short average existence ; for 
although numbers attain the scriptural age of 
" three score years and ten," a far greater pro- 
portion succumb in early manhood to the uni- 
versal penalty of Death. 

Still another objects: I don't care to undergo 
an examination by the doctor. What good 
objection can you have? If you are in good 
health you will be encouraged by an assurance 
to that effect. If disease has commenced its 
insidious inroads upon your constitution, you 
will certainly be the better prepared to protect 



HOW TO SELL IXSURAXCE. 117 

yourself, if correctly advised as to its nature. A 
thorough examination by an eminent medical 
man without any cost to yourself must in any 
event be a great advantage to you. Many men 
have had distressing fears as to the state of 
their health dispelled by such examinations, 
while many have received suggestions and 
cautions which have put them on their guard, 
and tended to lengthen their lives. 

Another says : My wife objects. She does not 
realize as she must upon calm reflection, that 
the relief from anxiety as to your family is 
much more likely to lengthen life than to 
shorten it. If she will but consider your best 
interests, as well as her own and her children's, 
she will desire you to insure. Hundreds of 
widows are living comfortably, with means to 
support and educate their children, by the 
funds derived from a policy on the life of the 
husband, who without it would be utterly des- 
titute. 

Everywhere are to be seen in the widow's garb, 



118 THE AET OF CANVASSING. 

those who can testify to the hard lot of destitu- 
tion. Wives should be the special patrons and 
advocates of such an institution, it is especially 
for their benefit. And yet, oftentimes women 
are less favorable to it than men. Many a wife 
absolutely opposes the husband's getting a life 
policy. Others are indifferent to it. We 
would like to remind such wives that multi- 
tudes of their number are suffering to : day from 
just such indifference or opposition, or, perhaps, 
foolish superstition. Multitudes will be sorry 
for it but once, and that is always. 

Still another says : My affairs are too much 
embarrassed now. When I get my business 
into shape I can afford to insure my life and 
will attend to it. 

The advantages of Life Insurance to persons 
situated as you describe yourself to be is most 
manifest. You have a business or property now 
which you deem to be of considerable value to 
you, but it is encumbered with debts; perhaps 
it is a mortgage on your house or farm, which 



HOW TO SELL INSURANCE. 119 

is due, or soon to become due, and you feel un- 
able to divert one dollar from your capital or 
earnings till that debt is paid and the property 
is relieved; or you may owe business debts 
which are pressing, but which you have ample 
means to pay, and leave you a handsome sur- 
plus, if health and life are spared, so that you 
can manage the business with your usual care 
and judgment. Now suppose you are suddenly 
arrested in the midst of your work and hurried 
to the grave, as so many have been under simi- 
lar circumstances, what is to become of the 
farm, the house, the business? Who can 
gather up your scattered means and pay the 
mortgages, or other debts, as you would have 
done ? Many instances may be cited where a 
small amount invested in Life Insurance has 
saved many thousands to the family of the in- 
sured. 

Experience has proved that the stability of 
fortune is as uncertain as the duration of life. 
Jt is impossible for an individual to calculate 



120 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

upon the future. The same law of averages 
which has lifted Life Insurance to the stability 
of a science, establishes the insecurity of com- 
mercial pursuits. To one success there are 
scores of failures. Statisticians assert that dur- 
ing the past thirty years only three out of one 
hundred merchants have acquired an independ- 
ence. In our present era of driving competi- 
tion, enormous risks, the feverish wear and tear 
of the nerves, and sinews of life, the danger is 
sensibly increased. Not one man in two hun- 
dred retires wealthy from business. Nor are 
the experiences of men engaged in industrial 
avocations, the culture of the soil, or in the 
carrying trade, anywise dissimilar; while the 
impossibility of accumulating property upon a 
salary has grown into a proverb. Is it not wise, 
then, to place a small sum where it is as far re- 
moved from the possibility of loss as any invest- 
ment can be ? 

Life Insurance has two features: — beneficence 
and self-protection. As to the latter, it is 



HOW TO SELL IKSUKAKCE. 121 

found in a bond, endowment, or other form of 
policy, by which one secures a certain sum to 
be paid to himself at a given age, if he lives to 
that age, or if he die earlier, to be paid when 
he dies to his heirs. In this way provision is 
made for a time when one's energies fail, and 
he may need money rather than be called upon 
to pay it out, as on a life-policy. 

Affection for one's family is a strong motive. 
Find out the particulars as to the wife, or chil- 
dren,, and appeal to the wish to protect them. 
If a wife devotes her energies to the comfort 
and happiness of her husband, is he not bound 
to return her devotion, by using some portion 
of his income to secure her a pecuniary resource 
in case of his death ? Don't wait. Procrasti- 
nation destroys opportunity. 

It is a political and social duty to insure. 
The universal practice of life insurance would, 
unquestionably, do more than any other avail- 
able measure to remove the evils of poverty — 
suffering, ignorance and crime — to make life 



122 THE AKT OF CANVASSING. 

itself longer, society happier, the aggregate 
prosperity of the community greater. 

Eef er to its influence upon social life ; the so- 
lidity it imparts to all institutions; and the 
protection it affords to industry and labor. 
Besides this, no person has a right to expose 
his family to the necessity of public support. 
It is a wrong to the public. By this means, 
too, one can be in a condition to have his debts 
paid. 

The best part of a man's estate is that which 
materializes quickest when emergencies re- 
quire ready money. The life insurance policy 
soonest, and with the least trouble, produces 
cash in the greatest of all emergencies, death, 
so that,, however rich, or in whatsoever circum- 
stances a man may be, an insurance policy is 
his best investment. 

Very few investments are as profitable as 
this. Show that many shrewd business men go 
into life insurance merely because it is a good 
operation. They say, it is the best investment 



HOW TO SELL INSURANCE. 123 

they can make ; because it combines the advan- 
tage of a Life Insurance, a Savings Bank and a 
safe Investment. One wealthy man is known 
to be insured to the amount of over $1,000,000. 

Show how many a valuable business has been 
sacrificed by the inability of a widow to wait 
until a fair price could be obtained, owing to 
ready money being required. 

Show how valuable a policy becomes at a 
time of pressure as collateral security. Also, 
how one can provide for his old age and for his 
family at the same time — the two objects in 
life for which he labors from day to day — by 
taking an Endowment policy or bond. If he 
is a. member of a Firm, point out the value of 
policies paid for from the business funds on the 
lives of the partners, thus securing a safe por- 
tion for the widow of the deceased partner with- 
out crippling the business for those who shall 
be the survivors. Well-to-do is the daughter of 
foresight. Keputation is money; and it is a 
mark of foresight, large mindedness, and econ- 



124 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

omy to insure. It increases one's credit and 
adds to his business reputation. Providence 
provides for the provident. 

Show that it develops the amiable and gen- 
erous traits of character ; accustoms a man to 
think for others; induces habits of industry, 
economy, and accumulation; and by relieving 
the mind from anxiety and over-exertion, 
promotes health and longevity, and the com- 
fort in the reflection that an ample life- 
policy will insure the family against want. 
If we gauge the suffering of one manly heart, 
for that single hour when the films of death 
are curtaining his loved ones from his sight 
unprovided for, and remember how many such 
agonies life insurance has prevented, putting 
hopeful farewells in their stead, after prolong- 
ing life, perhaps, by lightening care, we shall 
be ready to justify the companies in any neces- 
sary expense to induce men to insure. It is as 
wicked to disregard the opportunity of provid- 
ing even a small income, as it is to neglect 



HOW TO SELL INTSURAXCE. 125 

sewerage, disinfectant agencies, vaccination, to 
prevent fever, cholera, small-pox, etc. A man 
should be deemed just as imprudent to leave his 
life uninsured as to neglect insuring his property. 
Life insurance is a barrier to be reared at the 
earliest possible moment, and maintained at 
any cost. It is to be counted one of the first 
necessities of life. 

Every person whose mind or whose skillful 
hands are his capital knows that his family would 
suffer an irreparable loss in his death, and should 
at once make provision for their comfort in 
such an event by securing an insurance on his 
life. 

It is the loss of that capital, which his family, 
who are partakers with him in the results of 
his labor, sustain, that insurance is intended 
to prevent. 

A young man without capital desiring to 
begin business may through a life insurance 
secure a credit, or extend a credit already ob- 
tained, if it be understood that he has provided 



126 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

means for the prompt payment of his debts, in 
case of his sudden death. 

A young man of limited means by the aid of 
friends obtains an education. He should not 
fail to secure a life policy for an amount suffi- 
cient to repay all that he may be indebted on 
that account. 

A person of speculative tendencies, considers 
some enterprise in which there is more or less 
risk — he sees a good prospect of making money 
— but it will require his personal attention and 
skill — he fears that his death may intervene 
and that his family may not be able to conclude 
it. He insures his life and relieves himself from 
anxiety. 

Creditors may secure doubtful debts, by in- 
suring the lives of their debtors, and owners of 
property subject to mortgage, should in all 
cases, provide for the payment of the indebted- 
ness, by a life policy, and thereby possibly save 
their property from ruinous sacrifices, and 
secure to their families a permanent and com- 



HOW TO SELL INSURANCE. 127 

fortable home. In times of embarrassment, 
national and commercial, when other resources 
become limited or entirely fail, a policy of life 
insurance in a responsible company is the only 
family safe-guard which will neither depreciate 
nor disappoint. 

A person has some relative or friend depen- 
dent upon him for support — by insuring his 
life, he may secure that relative or friend from 
want after his death. 

A person will be entitled to property on arriv- 
ing at a certain age ; if he dies before he arrives at 
that age, his family will lose the benefit of it; 
but an insurance on his life will secure his 
family, otherwise unprovided for, against the 
poverty which his early death would bring upon 
them. 

A person has an interest in real estate which 
depends upon his life, or the life of some other 
person ; should death remove him or such other 
person, the family would be left destitute; an 
insurance upon the life will secure an equally 



128 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

valuable interest in other real estate and provide 
for the family. 

A person would like to leave a legacy to some 
charitable institution ; he is not now able to do 
so; yet he may, by paying the annual premium 
for insurance on his life, provide the amount 
he would wish to leave such institution at his 
death. 

Every congregation should insure the life of 
its pastor, and thus lift from his heart a grievous 
burden of apprehension in regard to those who 
are dear to him, when he shall be called from 
his work. 

Life Insurance is particularly obligatory upon 
clergymen, who with a limited salary and the 
closest economy, are generally only able to 
sustain themselves respectably, with scarce a 
thought or possibility of providing a future com- 
petency for their families. 

To all professional men who live upon fixed 
salaries that forbid the hope of any considerable 
savings, life insurance offers the certain means 



HOW TO SELL IXSUKANCE. 129 

of maintaining their families in a state of com- 
fort, when the natural protectors are removed 
by the hand of death. 

It is the only way that those with limited 
salaries, and with growing and entirely depend- 
ent families, can secure a competency for them, 
or leave them above want. 

To military and naval men, the utility of life 
insurance must be so apparent that it is almost 
unnecessary to offer any argument in its sup- 
port. Their lives may be said to be more ex- 
posed than those of any other class of individ- 
uals. Ever uncertain as to their place of 
destination, open to the chances of war and 
dangers of unhealthy climates, as well as to the 
perils of the sea, it certainly behooves them to 
avail themselves of the sure and easy means 
which life insurance offers, of making those 
provisions which affection and prudence dictate. 

It is truly surprising that so few farmers 
avail themselves of the advantages of life insur- 
ance. Did they know it, they are particularly 



130 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

interested in it. It is the surest way of provid- 
ing for their families. If wealthy, they can 
easily carry forward a policy which will soon be 
worth more than a farm, which their heirs will 
receive in ready cash. And if their property is 
now encumbered, and they are striving to free 
it, how desirable is a life policy. 

When one urges that he is vigorous and mak- 
ing money, insist that from the superfluity of 
the present he should provide for the possible 
infirmities and scarcity of the future ; as Joseph 
directed Pharaoh to lay up from the seven years 
of plenty against the seven years of famine. 
Trust no future however smiling. 

When the objection is that it is better to de- 
posit small moneys in the Savings bank, meet it 
thus: Even if you live, it were better to put 
them into a life policy. Suppose a person to 
deposit $100 annually with an insurance company 
to purchase a fixed policy payable at death 
(and no account taken of probable dividends) 
and $100 annually with a good and responsible 



rf he die at 


HisH 


the age of 


The Savings B 


30 


$100.00 


35 


680.19 


40 


1,420.68 


45 


2,365.75 


50 


3,571.93 



HOW TO SELL INSURANCE. 131 

Savings bank at compound interest at 5 per 
cent. Mark the result running through the 
twenty intervening years of a person's life 
from 30 to 50, as shown in this Table : 

His Heirs will Receive. From 

The Insurance Co. 

$4,291.84 

4,291.84 
4,291.84 
4,291.84 
4,291.84 

If then, with equal security to the depositor, 
Life Insurance pays a much larger sum to the 
family than would be paid by the accumulations 
of a Savings Bank, ought not this mode of in- 
vestment to be preferred ? Besides, it is not a 
question of accumulating funds, but of protect- 
ing whatever power to produce an income a 
man has. Insurance provides against poverty 
during the time in which a man would be earn- 
ing money to put in the bank. This is the 
period of danger. 

Does the objector assume that he can better 



132 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

use his money in his business ? Put the case 
thus: Suppose your profits to be twenty-five 
per cent or even double that — no matter what 
your prosperity. Here is a trifling periodical 
payment which covers an enormous risk. It 
covers the risk of your dying in the interim. 
Can your business do this, or anything ap- 
proaching it ? Suppose, to take the strongest 
case, you put $50 in your business, and at the 
year's end it is likely to become $250. Yet, 
even then you had better put your fifty dollars 
in an insurance company; for, should you die 
before the year's end, you would thereby have se- 
cured a large sum for your family. If you 
live, so much the better ; thanK God, and go on 
again, not forgetting to pay another premium 
in due time, lest during another year you should 
not be so fortunate. 

Although one has no family, and may not 
have one, show that money may be needed in 
advanced age, and so explain an endowment or 
an annuity policy. Also, that some relative 



HOW TO SELL INSURANCE. 133 

may be benefited by a policy ; or that in this 
way he might like to will something to a benev- 
olent or educational institution. 

Where one fears he cannot continue pay- 
ments, and may lose all that he put in reply : 
Have you not had the value of your money in 
the risk, as in a fire-policy ? And better, Non- 
forfeiture prevents the possibility of losing what 
is put in: and so explain this arrangement. 

When one says, I will think of it, it is well to 
remind him that procrastination is not only 
"the thief of time," but the murderer of 
opportunity; that many a family is doomed 
to want from a similar delay of but a 
day or an hour. You would not leave your 
house, store, barn or shop uninsured a day. 

Life insurance is not for a day or a year, 
but for all time. It is not for a class 
or condition of society, but for all manner of 
men : AVhatever condition you hold in life, 
you need life insurance. 

A policy of life insurance has no blanks; it 



134 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

always draws a prize for the family, if the in- 
sured remains faithful to his trust and con- 
tinues the policy in force. 

It was originated for the benefit of the many 
and not the few ; is "the poor man's friend" 
and affords the very best form of protection for 
the family which has ever been devised. 

The leading men of all countries are patrons 
of life insurance. Why should you hesitate 
when so many illustrious examples are before 
you? 

When you turn the life insurance agent away 
with the promise of next week, next month or 
next year, do you ever reflect how very uncer- 
tain it is whether he can do you any good then ? 
In the first place you may not be alive when the 
time comes around. In that case the business 
is settled once for all. But if you are, and 
want the company, the company may not want 
you. Any one of a thousand things may turn 
up to disqualify you for membership. That 
cough may return, or exposure may have weak- 



HOW TO SELL INSURANCE. 135 

ened you, or disabling accident may have come, 
or, added to an already none too good record, 
some of your near relatives may have been car- 
ried off by a prejudicing malady. A life com- 
pany is a pretty exclusive sort of club. It 
doesn't take much to get you black-balled there. 
It is a good day when the man and the company 
both conclude they want each other. 

"We are commanded," says Spurgeon, " to 
take no anxious thought for to-morrow. How 
can I do that ? If I were a man struggling in life, 
and had in my power to insure for something 
which would take care of my wife and family in 
after days, if I did not do it, you might preach to 
me to all eternity about not taking thought for 
to-morrow ; but I could not help doing it when 
I saw those I love around me unprovided for. 
But let me go to one of the excellent institu- 
tions which exist, and let me see that all is pro- 
vided for, I come home and say, 4 Now I know 
how to practice Christ's command of taking no 
thought for to-morrow ; I pay the policy money 



136 THE AET OF CANVASSING. 

once a year, and I take no further thought 
about it, for I have no occasion to do so now, 
and have obeyed the very spirit and letter of 
Christ's command.' Our Lord meant that we 
were to get rid of cares. Now it is apparent 
that these distressing cares are removed, and 
we are able to live above anxiety by that single 
process." 

When you have convinced the judgment, 
gather up all your powers to move the will. 
Grapple on to the man. Throw your will into 
his will, make him answer to his own conscience 
such questions as these: Have I done my duty 
to my family ? Have I done it to the full ex- 
tent of my present ability ? If I were to die 
to-night, would those who are dear to me be 
safe from the pangs of want ? Would my chil- 
dren have a comfortable home and means of 
education ? Would my wife be independent of 
the cold charities of the world ? Would my es- 
tate pay my debts and leave a competency to 
my family ? If not, must I not obtain a life 



HOW TO SELL WSTJRAXCE. 137 

policy now, and so substitute the certainty of a 
snug patrimony for the uncertainty of the con- 
tinuance of my life ? 

If you insured one out of ten of those thus 
argued, you will do well, and have no reason to 
be discouraged ; and as to the remaining nine, 
you may have started in their minds new ideas 
on the subject, and some of them may eventual- 
ly give you their applications. Therefore do 
not be disheartened by lack of immediate suc- 
cess. 

The field is boundless. Every man who can 
earn a living for himself and family should be 
insured and to every such man the opportunity 
should be offered. Truly, the harvest is plenty, 
but the really good laborers are few, and to the 
good laborer there is scarcely any limit of use- 
fulness save that of his own capacity. 



138 THE ART OF CAXVASSING. 



HOW MUCH INSURANCE SHOULD 
A MAN GARRY ON HIS LIFE? 

Most persons who believe in and carry insur- 
ance upon their lives are insured for an amount 
altogether disproportionate to the pecuniary 
loss inflicted upon the family by their death. 
The insured's accumulated estate, whether 
large or small, cannot earn more than money at 
interest, except as he by his energy and capa- 
city guides it to greater profit. 

Every dollar of income over the earning of 
bare interest must cease with life, therefore the 
need of providing a contingent fund which be- 
comes operative at death. Life insurance does 
this best. It is the only provision that is 
realized at death — all personal earnings cease. 

A man generally feels very poor when 
deciding for how much he shall insure. He 
usually proposes to take a small amount at first 
and "if everything is all right he will take 
more some other time, thus at once presuming 



HOW TO SELL INSURANCE. 139 

that lie runs no risk whatever and has a hold 
upon life that he need not relax unless he 
desires to. 

He thinks of $5,000. That's a nice sum. 
Probably he never had so much cash in hand 
all at one time and he thinks that for a starter 
that will do. That is not as much as he would 
like to insure for, but he reasons that it is ' bet- 
ter than nothing,' and that the wife could at 
least get along for a time with this until 
' something turns up.' He hasn't the least idea 
what he means by 'something turning up.' 
For a widow and children the usual things that 
turn up are bills. From the day of her hus- 
band's death income absolutely ceases and the 
little capital she may have diminishes. 

It's rather hard for a family that has been 
living at the rate of say $3,000 a year to sud- 
denly be called upon to live for all time on 
$5,000. And yet many a woman is ^apparently 
required to do this when her husband dies. It 
is expected that she will curtail expenses with 



140 



THE ART OF CANVASSING. 



the lessened income, but it seems cruel to leave 
her to meet a condition which even the man 
would shrink from." 

The following table will be valuable in 
demonstrating how much insurance a man 
should carry for the complete protection of his 
family, giving 

PRESENT VALUE, ACCORDING TO ANNUITY 

TABLE, AT 6 PER CENT. OF A LIFE 

PRODUCING $1,000 YEARLY. 





Value 




Value 




Value 


Age. 


Per $1, 000 


Age. 


Per $1,000 


Age. 


Per $1,000 




Earned. 




Earned. 




Earned. 


20 


$13,932 


35 


$12,870 


50 


$10,640 


21 


13,885 


36 


12,765 


51 


10,436 


22 


13,834 


37 


12.655 


52 


10,226 


23 


13,781 


35 


12,540 


53 


10,009 


24 


13725 


39 


12,418 


54 


9,786 


25 


13.06(3 


40.,... 


12,291 


55 


9,556 


26 


13.604 


41 


12,157 


56 


9,321 


27 


13,538 


42 


12.017 


57 


9,081 


28 


13,469 


43 


11,870 


58 


8,836 


29 


13.396 


44 


11.716 


59 


8,586 


30 


13,320 


45 


11.555 


60 


8.332 


31 


13,239 


46 


11,386 


61 


8,074 


32 


13.154 


47 


11.211 


62 


7,813 


33 


13,064 


48 


11,028 


63 


7,549 


32 


12,969 


49 


10,838 


64 


7,283 



For example at age 35 the life of a man 



HOW TO SELL IXSURAKCE. 141 

earning $1,000 a year is worth to his family in 
present cash $12,870; if he earns $5,000 a 
year it is worth $12,870x5=164,350; that is 
the actual money loss to them by his death at 
that time. 



CONCLUSION. 

Oliver Wendell Holmes says: " The human 
race is divided into two classes — those who go 
ahead and do something, and those who sit still 
and enquire, 'Why wasn't it done the other way?' " 

The business men of the world may be 
divided into two general classes — those who 
have wares, goods or services to dispose of, 
which are sought for by the customer ; and 
those whose goods, wares or services are not 
voluntarily sought for by the customer, but 
must be presented to him for acceptance and 
purchase; or, in other words, in the first in- 
stance the demand causes the supply, in the 
latter the supply creates the demand. 



142 THE AET OF CAKVASSING. 

When a man has acquired the Art of Can- 
vassing that is, securing purchasers by personal 
application, whether he acquires it by selling 
books, merchandise or Insurance, he has ac- 
quired a fortune in himself and is an independ- 
ent man, in demand alike in all parts of the 
world. 

The Art of Canvassing cannot be imparted ; 
it must be acquired. Quintilian, when asked 
how one should acquire the art of speaking, 
replied i ' the way to learn how to speak is to 
speak," and the way to acquire the art of can- 
vassing is to canvass. 

Life Insurance is a science, but the practical 
part of presenting its claims for patronage is 
an art. 

Active and intelligent agents are necessary to 
the prosperity of a life insurance company. 

Managing a life insurance company is like 
rowing a boat up-stream — if you stop rowing, 
the boat will not stand still but will drift back. 
Stoppage is stagnation, and stagnation is the 



HOW TO SELL INSURANCE. 143 

prelude to death. Hence the officers of every 
great and successful insurance company have 
devoted a considerable part of their attention 
to the matter of agencies, and where this has 
been deemed of trifling moment, little has 
been accomplished. The vice-president of a 
great company recently publicly said: "An 
officer of a life insurance company ambitious 
for popularity and success, may well sit at the 
feet of the life insurance agent ; and no officer 
is fit to be such who has not either been an 
agent, or is not in thorough sympathy with 
their work, for power only attends sympathetic 
leadership." 

Agents are the working bees who bring honey 
to the hive. Without their aid every company 
would be compelled to close its doors. The 
agent therefore is the most important man in 
the life insurance business, the man who comes 
into personal contact with the public, and does 
the hardest work on the insurance battlefield 

Every life company seeks to draw into its 



144 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

service honest, energetic, reliable men, who 
have ability to write business; in fact, one of 
the crying needs of the day is agents. 

The great leaders in insurance have also rec- 
ognized that it was not v enough to establish 
agencies, but that those filling them must be 
instructed and stimulated into efficient men. 

Year by year a higher grade of intelligence 
and capacity on the part of the agent has been 
required, just as the general education of the 
masses necessitates a more thorough education 
of the teachers. 

Many effective agents cannot devote their 
entire time to insurance work, but whether they 
give the whole or a part of their time, the 
pre-eminently successful agents have been those 
who broadened the scope of their knowledge 
and "kept posted " by regularly reading the in- 
surance journals and the current literature of 
companies; who gave most of their time to per- 
sonal canvassing ; who worked entirely upon a 
commission basis ; paid their own expenses and 



HOTV TO SELL IISTSURA^CE. 145 

carried out their own plans with push, energy, 
ability, integrity and enterprise. 

There is no business in which energy and 
tact without capital can be so profitably in- 
vested or employed as personal canvassing for 
a reliable life insurance company. 



At the end, as at the beginning of this little 
book, designed to furnish helpful hints, practi- 
cal information and friendly counsel to life in- 
surance canvassers and agents, the author de- 
sires to state that his work is, in part, a com- 
pilation of the writings of others, together with 
numerous useful suggestions which have come 
under his notice during a long service in the 
life insurance business. Not knowing from 
whose pens these interesting fragments — gleaned 
from the rather broad fields of life insurance liter- 
ature — originally came, he is unable to credit in- 
dividuals with specific work ; but, having prof- 
ited by these writings, he is profoundly grateful 



146 THE ART OF CANVASSING. 

to their authors, and hereby places on file a 
general acknowledgment of his indebtedness to 
the unknown friends and teachers of life insur- 
ance agents. Quotation marks have not been 
freely used because too many inverted commas 
are unsightly, and for the further reason that it 
has usually been impossible to determine the 
limits of direct quotations. 



This work is submitted to an indulgent insur- 
ance public in the hope that it may in some 
measure satisfy the inquiries and lighten the 
labors of the novice, as well as prove useful to 
the experienced agent by offering suggestions 
that may give increased effectiveness to his 
work, "that some of the tears of the widow 
may be wiped away, and some of the cries of 
the fatherless be hushed." 



INDEX. 



Acquaintance, Personal 54 

Adaptations of Insurance, Special 121-130 

Appear Cheerful ; Do not complain of hard 

times 49 

Arguments not so necessary as the presenta- 
tion of motives to action 48 

Avoided, Things to be ; seeking more pay ; 

. an agent can get all he can earrj 80 

Assailing other companies, except in defense 

of your own 30 

Doing business for more than one company . 31 

Hesitancy to solicit insurance lest it should 

be declined 31 

Hesitancy about canvassing the wealthy — 

they are the best patrons of life insurance, 31 

Introducing your business depreciatingly or 

disparagingly 31 

Allowing slurring remarks about your pro- 
fession to pass unanswered 32 

Suggesting a small policy 32 

Undermining a man's faith in a company in 

which he is already insured 32 

Wrangling with a man who boasts that he 

never was nor will be insured 33 

Wasting time in discussions about the value 
of life insurance ; that is conceded by all . 33 



148 INDEX. 

Avoided, Things to be— (Continued). 
Leaving a man at once who says he does not 

want insui'ance 33 

Producing a blank application prematurely. 34 

Talking life insurance inopportunely 34 

Importuning your friends to insure 34 

Misusing social opportunities and privileges. 34 
Urging the compliance of a hesitating candi- 
date 35 

Finishing an application before a full ex- 
planation of the plan of insurance proposed 35 

Anticipating objections 35 

Promising more than the company does. ... 35, 36 
Talking insurance to a man in a public place 36 

Importuning before a complete explanation 

is made « 37 

Becoming discouraged because your field 

abounds in other agents 37 

Mentioning other companies if it can be 

avoided 37 

Skimming a place, instead of working it 

thoroughly 38 

Spreading over too large a territory 38 

Seeking a general agency before you have 

shown your capacity asa " local " 38 

Scattering your energies in too many direct- 
ions at once 39 

Talking too much; listen to what your can- 
didate has to say 39 

Leaving when you have made a good impres- 
sion ; stay and follow it up 39 



IXDEX. 149 

Avoided, Things to be — (Continued). 

Neglecting old business to seek new 40 

Neglecting an opportunity ; avail yourself of 

all seasons " 40 

Thinking that the business is all play ; it is 

work, and hard work 40, 41 

Believing that you can learn it all in a 

minute 41 

Thinking that you must tell every man all 

you know about life insurance 41 

Wasting your strength in combating other 

agents 41 

Sitting idly in your office because the 

weather is bad; men are less busy then, 

and can better give you their attention. . . 41 

Becoming discouraged because a man says 

"no" and rejects your overtures 41 

Omitting to keep a memorandum book of 

names, addresses, &c 42 

Undervaluing your own abilities 42 

Taking a life insurance agency as a make- 
shift 43 

Letting opportunities pass unimproved 43 

Waiting for extraordinary opportunities.. . . 44 

Indulging in irritability or bad temper 44 

Talking of yourself 44 

Introducing side issues 45 

Canvassing for life insurance a profession. ... 1 

Caution ; speaking too much is as injurious 

as speaking too little 49-51 

Commutation columns and their uses 11-14 



150 INDEX. 

Compensation 90 

Dividends— How applied 20 

Earnings for a probable lifetime — Table show- 
ing their probable value 141 

Enlarging the Business— By use of news- 
paper notices, distribution of circulars, keep- 
ing memorandum books, forms given 82-90 

Employment of Sub- Agents 95etseq 

Enter into the social life of your community, 

but avoid antagonisms 58 

Enterprise 73-76 

Essentials of Success 28-29 

Formulas for computing premiums 15-18 

General Considerations 132-137 

Good Will and influence of the head man of 
a concern and of the candidate's friends 

should be secured 142-146 

How much insurance should a man take?. . . .138, 139 
Industry — Hard work is the key that unlocks 
the door to success. Do not fritter away 

time. Make use of all opportunities 56-58 

Integrity 59-64 

Interviewing — Suggestions as to approaching 

persons 23-26 

Kinds of goods for sale ; those which the buyer 

seeks and those which seek a buyer 141 

Life Insurance — Fundamental principles ex- 
plained 5, 6 

Life Insurance Agents in demand 2 

Natural fitness for the duties of 2, 3, 4 

Preparation for work of 4, 5 



IKDEX. 151 

Loading for Expenses 19 

Master of His Business — An agent should be 
able to answer all inquiries as to his com- 
pany or others 52 

Mortality Tables 7-10 

Non-Forfeiture 21-22 

Objections to life insurance answered. 99-120 

Perseverance 68-72 

Personal Acquaintance is the agent's chief 
stock in trade. Seek to extend it in all 

directions 54 

Personal Solicitation is essential to success 46 
Push — You must push your work, but push 

discretly 46-47 

Reserves Explained 20, 21 

Savings Banks and life insurance compared. . 131 

Seek the very best risks 56 

Success, Essentials of 28-29 

System — Order is Heaven's first law; sug- 
gestions as to methods 76-81 

Tables of Mortality 7-10 

Tact — An indispensable element in canvassing 27 

Things to be avoided ■ 30-45 



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